This year, as in previous years, DRI welcomed a California State University Long Beach student as a Human Factors intern. This year, that intern is Ryan Fandetti who is pursuing his Master’s in Human Factors Psychology and finishing up his final thesis this Spring.
Each year DRI partners with the head of the CSU Human Factors faculty, Dr. Thomas Strybel, to identify students in the program to take on as interns. The program gives the student interns an opportunity to work on many aspects of Human Factors projects for our automotive clients.
Ryan grew up in Tampa, Florida and now calls Long Beach, California home. After completing his bachelor’s in psychology at UCF, Orlando, he found he had an interest in Human Factors and its practical application in engineering.
During his time at DRI, Ryan has been able to participate in several current studies for our automotive clients. He has been a part of study design, participant acquisition and recruitment, active study data collection, including in our simulator environment, and reporting. “I’m taking this great opportunity to gain as much experience as I can,” Ryan commented, “It’s invaluable to participate in the full process of user experience studies like these.”
“Dr. Strybel and the CSU Long Beach Masters of Human Factors program have been great to partner with. We feel strongly about investing in upcoming generations who will help shape the policies in our industry, and others, in the discipline of human factors,” states Ana Bakker, DRI Human Factors Research Manager. “In our experience the CSULB interns bring knowledge that helps move our projects forward and take away experience and a broader understanding of real-world applications in their chosen discipline.”
