Name: Human Readiness and Adopting New Rail Technology
Uploaded: 2024-05-10T03:43:38.155Z
Description: Dr. Sarah Pazell, a researcher and practitioner in human factors, emphasizes the importance of aligning people with technology advancements through continuous testing, communication, and iterative improvements for successful outcomes.

Sara Pazell export 2.vtt

Subtitles

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Sara: So when you're looking

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at the human readiness

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levels, you're looking at

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things like can you come?

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Can you play?

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And can you stay

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with this technology?

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That's the analogy I used

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in the conference today

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and it was essentially,

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can people interface with

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technologies adequately?

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And you test that

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out, you test that

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out in very detailed,

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nuanced, granular ways.

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Tuan: Could you define

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what the term human

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readiness means?

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And what role does it

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play in the adoption of

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new technologies in rail?

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Sara: Sure, so human

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readiness is essentially

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the element of a system in a

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rail, there's an ecosystem,

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there's many moving parts

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and that involves people.

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And human readiness is

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that element of having the

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people part, the process

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part adequately designed

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to accept new technologies

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so that they're successful.

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And if you do it

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right, you solve big

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problems, you innovate.

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The technology's used

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as it's intended.

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But if you get it wrong,

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it can go really wrong.

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It can cause fatalities or

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it can cause disablement

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and injuries and it can

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cause psychosocial harm

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where people just feel

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like they've not been

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included and it's a fettered

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process, a complicated

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process to use technologies.

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Tuan: What are some of

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the common challenges

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faced by rail when

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adopting new technologies?

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Sara: What are some of

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the common challenges?

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I think the common

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challenges are I have common

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place across industries,

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multiple industries.

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Any large infrastructure

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kind of heavy equipment

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industry has a lot of problem

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in trying to coordinate

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all of those moving parts

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that we talked about.

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So when you're looking

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at the human readiness

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levels, you're looking at

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things like Can you come?

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Can you play?

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And can you stay

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with this technology?

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That's the analogy I used

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in the conference today.

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And it was essentially

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can people interface with

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technologies adequately?

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And you test that out.

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You test that out

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in very detailed,

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nuanced, granular ways.

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You test it out

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with task analysis.

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You test it out with looking

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at user population statistics

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and operational use.

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And when you look

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at, can you play?

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That's the trials,

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modeling, simulation,

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those types of factors.

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When you go to, can you

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stay, that's your resilience

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in a sustainable operation.

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So the challenges in making

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all of that happen are

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to make sure everybody's

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communicating with each other.

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To make sure you've done that

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modeling and that testing

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before operational use.

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And you've challenged

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yourself in many different

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scenarios to keep testing

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that use of that technology.

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You continually monitor

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it and give feedback

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back to designers and

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make ongoing what we call

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iterative improvements.

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So, there's a lot to do

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and to appreciate and

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it has to happen from

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many points of view.

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And that's the challenge is

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making sure we understand

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from many points of view,

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what the experience and

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what the realities are

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of using that technology.

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Tuan: Could you provide an

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example of a rail technology

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that requires significant

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human readiness strategies?

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Sara: Almost any technology

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you want to adopt, that is

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to change any operational

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method or practice or

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maintenance method or practice

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requires some consideration

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of human readiness.

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So, you know all the time

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I ask those questions

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again, can you come, can

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you play, can you stay?

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Are you looking at trying to

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test out a new operational

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system for PTC or for

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regenerative braking?

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Are you looking at you know,

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positive train controls

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and regenerative braking?

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Are you looking at trying

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to change anything even on

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the dash, a new technology?

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Are you introducing

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new ways of conducting

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education, new IT systems?

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When you're doing that, the

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scenarios, there's some great

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ways to solve these problems

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using extended realities,

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using immersive technologies,

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using remote technologies,

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remote visual guidance.

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But you must test it out.

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So you may be having an

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operator who's operating

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under normal conditions in

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a simulated environment.

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You may have them

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go through tunnels.

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You may look at night or day.

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You may look at the point

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of view if there is a

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light vehicle coming near

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the railway crossings.

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You may look at

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pedestrians in the way.

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You have to look at lots

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of conditions and scenarios

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that people who know this

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job, who know it really

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well, the domain experts

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can help advise on.

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And that's part of the other

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problem too is when you

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have decisions made in one

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department, procurement or

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maybe a rail infrastructure

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manager who's devoid of

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knowing exactly what happens

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in day to day operations.

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Connecting those pieces is

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a big part of the puzzle.

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And that's problematic

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in a large organization

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with a big ecosystem.

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Tuan: Do you find rail

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organizations use a lot of

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simulations to kind of help

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with this sort of thing?

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Sara: That's happening

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more and more.

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And so in our presentation

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today, I was able to

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share some materials that

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was with retro, sorry

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Metro trains Australia

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and Real Serious Games.

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And that's been published

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already about creating that

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environment and trying to

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test out pre operational,

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pre live, where there's

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protections around the safety.

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And we call that the, you

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know, fail safe kind of

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situations of what you'll

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do and safe to fail trials

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and tribulations that you

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can just test out scenarios

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and learn in a simulated

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mock environment before

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you're really on the railway.

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Tuan: Could you explain

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how the nine point scale

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with human readiness works?

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Sara: Yeah.

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So it's a bit like

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snakes and ladders.

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It was designed to help

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people be a parallel to

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NASA's technology readiness

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levels, which actually

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started in the 1970s when

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designers were looking

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at deploying technology.

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So it starts with research and

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development, the engineering

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design and the deployment of

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technology, and some cognitive

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human factors researchers

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led by Mica Endsley, a

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human factors researcher.

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In their graduate studies

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started to say, well this is

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really important to get the

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technology right for use.

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You must also understand what

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the role of the human is.

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Even if it's automation,

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there's a role for somebody

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to make a decision with the

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use of that technology and

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the ongoing monitoring of that

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technology or the maintenance

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of that technology.

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So they wrote something side

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by side, nine levels, to

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suit the technology readiness

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and to make sure that was

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useful in three main phases.

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And that's what I was

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explaining before about the

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basic human research, how

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people are going to engage

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with that technology and

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what population of people.

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And you know, what's the use

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when they start to engage.

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If it says visual

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monitors, is it legible?

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Can they interpret the font?

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You know it gets to that

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stage, are we managing

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for the most population,

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the greatest population of

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people are the people who

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are really doing our jobs.

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Then you start to go to

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the second phase which

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is about modeling and

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testing and focus groups.

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And when you do a focus

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group, you can have four

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or five people in a focus

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group who are domain experts

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and you'll, you likely

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address up to 80 percent

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of accessibility issues.

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So it's a really good

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stage, very important stage.

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So you may as well make that

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focus group incredibly close

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to operational readiness.

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And the third phase is the

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applications and different

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operations and adding

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complexity and adding

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scenarios, but continually

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monitoring the response

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to those scenarios.

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And so it's detailed

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in nine stages.

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There's a lot of literature

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that's freely available.

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It's open access

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literature on this.

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And I think you'll see more

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of this literature coming,

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likely maybe from RISSB

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will create more standards.

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There they do some

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great standards.

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Rail does a good job on

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human factors integration

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and their V diagrams.

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So they're already doing

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a good job on this, but I

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think aside from looking

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at the technology that

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gets designed, we need to

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change that language to

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also think about the same

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stages of system readiness

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to receive technology.

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In rail industry, there's

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certainly an opportunity

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where we can ask anyone

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who's supplying their new

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technology to us to disclose

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what they did on their

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human readiness studies.

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That would be really

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important to put that in

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procurement agreements.

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Tuan: How do you foresee

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human readiness evolving

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in the rail industry?

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Sara: Ah we just started

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to start to address that.

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So I hope that it'll

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become more commonplace

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in procurement agreements.

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I hope that there will

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be a junction of project

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management right through

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to operations that doesn't

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have a cutoff point.

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In other words, there's

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still some responsibility

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when you start sponsoring

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new technology.

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After handover and operational

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use, there's still more

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feedback going back to

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project managers and feedback

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going to designers and

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levels of responsibility,

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chains of responsibility

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to understand how it fits

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or how it doesn't fit.

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Any causational pathways

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that occur, any new

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design strategies.

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And I would love to see

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us really articulate

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the problems that

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technology needs to solve.

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So once we articulate those

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problems properly, you

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can test if the technology

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worked or not rather

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than just adopt it, for

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the sake of a new trend.

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Tuan: Great.

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That's all the questions

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I have for today.

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Sara thanks for your time.

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Thank you.

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And thanks for

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watching this video.

Rail Safety

Expert Insight

Dr. Sarah Pazell, a researcher and practitioner in human factors, emphasizes the importance of aligning people with technology advancements through continuous testing, communication, and iterative improvements for successful outcomes.