I am conducting research in Cognitive Ergonomics under the guidance of faculty advisor Dr. Nadine Sarter in the University of Michigan Center for Ergonomics.
My dissertation research involves a series of experiments with the goal of determining effective methods of supporting attention management for anesthesiologists through vibrotactile displays. These displays can communicate patient information through complex patterns of vibrations presented to multiple locations around the body, while minimally interfering with ongoing tasks.

Main Research Interests

• Cognitive Ergonomics / Human Factors
• Attention and interruption management
• Multimodal information processing and presentation
• Human error in complex systems
• Human-automation interaction
• Decision support systems

Research Domains

The domains I have conducted research in, and have reasonable familiarity with, include:

• Medicine - Anesthesiology
• Military operations - Command and Control, UAV control and operations
• Driving environment
• Aviation - Cockpit Automation, Air Traffic Control

Selected Publications

(for a complete list of publications, click the Resume tab to the right)

• Ferris, T., and Sarter, N. (submitted). When content matters: The role of processing code in tactile display design. Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Haptics.
• Ferris, T., Wickens, C. D., and Sarter, N. (2009 - in press). Cockpit Automation: Still Struggling to Catch Up.... In E. Salas, T. Allard, and D. Maurino (Eds.) Human Factors in Aviation (2nd edition). Elsevier Science Publishers.
• Ferris, T. and Sarter, N. (2009). Supporting anesthetic monitoring through tactile display of physiological parameters. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 53rd Annual Meeting. San Antonio, TX. October.
• Ferris, T., Hameed, S., and Sarter, N. (2009). Tactile displays for multitask environments: The role of concurrent task processing code. Proceedings of the Third Joint Eurohaptics Conference and Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems (WorldHaptics '09). Salt Lake City, UT. March.
• Winner of the WorldHaptics '09 Best Paper in Haptics Science Award
• Ferris, T. and Sarter, N. (2008). Crossmodal Links Between Vision, Audition, and Touch in Complex Environments. Human Factors, 50 (1), 17-26.
• Ferris, T., Hameed, S., Penfold, R., and Rao, N. (2007). Tactons in multitask environments: The interaction of presentation modality and processing code. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 51st Annual Meeting. Baltimore, MD. October.
• Winner of the 2007 Alphonse Chapanis Best Student Paper Award
• Ferris, T. (2007). Tactons in multitask environments: The role of processing code. 2007 University of Michigan Engineering Graduate Symposium. November.
• First place, Oral presentation competition in Modeling, Operations and Ergonomics session
• Ferris, T., Penfold, R., Hameed, S., and Sarter, N. (2006). The implications of crossmodal links in attention for the design of multimodal interfaces: A driving simulation study. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 50th Annual Meeting. San Francisco, CA. October.