Certificate Programs

Medical Devices and Systems Graduate Certificate – (4 Courses**)

Overview

The rate of preventable deaths due to medical error is huge. A widely cited report published in 2016 suggests at least 250,000 patients die each year due to medical error, making it the third leading cause of death in the USA. A large percentage of these deaths are related to poor user interface design.

Recognizing the medical error “epidemic,” the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) now requires the manufacturers to Class II and III devices to apply HFE through the device development process and validate that representative users can operate them safely. This requirement has increased the demand for professionals in the field of human factors engineering who have special knowledge about the design and evaluation of medical technology.

The Human Factors Engineering Program at Tufts University can help prepare you to enter this exciting field!

The Graduate Certificate consists of FOUR courses (many available as evening classes!).   Students interested in earning a masters degree can often apply these certificate courses toward a master’s degree in human factors engineering.

Read the older PDF Certificate Description.

Read the NEW PDF Certificate Description – including online and hybrid options!.

Certificate Faculty Advisors:

Professor Michael Wiklund (email:  Michael Wiklund) 

or James Intriligator, Ph.D. 617.627.2071

 

Who Should Apply?
The program is open to individuals with a solid bachelor’s degree in a relevant area (or with industry experience) and is especially useful for human factors professionals, user interface designers, and others who wish to develop or enhance their medical/health technology assessment, validation, and overall design skills.   Apply now.

Program of Study
 ** Although the below details were correct for 2018-19, the current and complete details can be found HERE. **

The certificate requires four courses:

  • Two foundation courses:
  • 2 more courses from approved list, including such classes as:
      • ENP-0149-ID – Industrial Design
      • ENP-0105 – Assistive Technology
      • ENP-0161 – Human Factors in Product Design
      • ENP-0166 – Computer Interface Design
      • ENP-0163 – Analytical Methods
      • COMP-0171 – Human-Computer Interaction
      • ME-0102 – Inventive Design
    • BME-0100 – Design of Medical Instrumentation

Course numbers/titles are subject to change. Descriptions of some of these courses are available on our courses page, and others can be found via SIS.

This certificate is offered in collaboration with the Tufts Department of Psychology, the School of Engineering, and the Department of Occupational Therapy at Tufts.

Tuition
Please see the Graduate Programs website for information about current tuition rates.

Human-Computer Interaction Certificate Program (4 Courses**)

Overview

With hardware processing power increasing and software development techniques improving, the user interface is fast becoming the key bottleneck in developing computer products that meet market needs.

When the human-computer interface does not reflect the needs of the intended users, products fail in the marketplace, and enormous sums of money are spent on documentation, help lines, and training courses to overcome the difficulties of running programs. Much of this difficulty can be avoided with proper attention to both the physical and psychological constraints of the user.

Extending the expertise of its internationally recognized Human Factors program, Tufts has designed this certificate program to train the next generation of computer programmers for tomorrow’s complex programming challenges. Students must complete four courses, including those in engineering psychology, user interface design, and computer programming. Students interested in earning a graduate degree can often apply these certificate courses toward a master’s degree in computer science or human factors.

Certificate Faculty Advisor:
Daniel J. Hannon, Ph.D. 617.627.2021   or

James Intriligator, Ph.D. 617.627.2071

Who Should Apply?
The program is open to individuals with a bachelor’s degree and is especially useful for computer programmers, web designers, software engineers, human factors professionals, user interface designers, and others who wish to develop or enhance their user interface design and implementation skills. Apply now.

Program of Study

  ** Although the below details were correct for 2018-19, the current details can be found HERE. **

The certificate requires four courses:

  1. Two foundation courses:
    • COMP 171 Human-Computer Interaction
    • PSY 53/ENP 61 Engineering Psychology
  2. One or more of the following:
    • COMP 86 Object-Oriented Programming for GUIs
    • ENP 161 Human Factors in Product Design
    • ENP 162 Man-Machine System Design
    • ENP 166 Applied Design of Software User Interfaces
    • PSY 130 Advanced Engineering Psychology
  3. Electives
    • COMP 20 Web Programming
    • COMP 175 Computer Graphics
    • EE 120 Computer Animation for Technical Communications
    • OTS 105 Assistive Technology

Course numbers/titles are subject to change. Descriptions are available on our courses page.

This certificate is offered in collaboration with the Tufts Department of Psychology, the School of Engineering, and the Department of Occupational Therapy at Tufts.

Human Factors in Data Science (4 Courses**)

More info here:  https://engineering.tufts.edu/me/current/certificate-programs/human-factors-data-science

Overview

This program provides students with the knowledge and skills to engage in the design of artificial intelligence (AI) systems, based on data science (DS) and machine learning (ML) applications, providing a critical understanding of the role that humans play through the data processing pipeline. As engineering solutions turn more and more toward automation and the use of AI, the need for practitioners who understand the critical role of human decision making in automated system design is greater than ever. This program will be of value to students interested in engineering, data science and computer science with a desire to build human-AI systems. The program draws on courses in human factors engineering and data science. The successful certificate holders will be prepared to engage in AI system development, guiding the design of human data collection, feature extraction and system implementation efforts.

AI continues to capture the headlines as the pathway to future innovation, yet the reality for many AI endeavors is that they are only as good as the data collected and the skills of the people who use these systems. Tufts University is uniquely suited to address these shortcomings through a combined application of course content from the Human Factors Engineering Program, the Computer Science Department, and the Data Science Program that will show students how to address human needs and interests within the context of computational systems. The combination of these disciplines is unique at Tufts and provides our graduates with the opportunity to become leaders in the application of AI to highly complex, human-machine systems.

The program will operate as a graduate certificate, requiring participants to complete 4 graduate-level courses across the Human Factors Engineering Program, the Computer Science Department and the Data Science Program. The program has two required courses, one foundation course option (i.e., choose one of two), and one human factors elective, providing students with some flexibility to tailor the program to their interests. It will be possible for students to complete this certificate by taking evening courses during the fall and spring semesters and complete the requirements within one academic year. Summer courses will be available in the future to allow for students to extend their study over a full calendar year if desired.

Certificate Faculty Advisor:
Daniel J. Hannon, Ph.D. 617.627.2021   or

James Intriligator, Ph.D. 617.627.2071

Required Courses:

ENP167 Human Factors of Data Science – (a new course, to be offered in Spring 21), this course focuses on the human factors of data processing pipelines.  This includes data collection techniques, data cleaning and manipulation techniques, interactions between data collection and model assumptions, and concepts for interpretation of model accuracy with respect to human performance.  This course applies to a range of topics including healthcare, transportation, military operations, consumer-facing systems, and safety systems.

COMP 205 Data Science in Python – Fundamentals of python programming for data analysis. Common python data structures and algorithms. Design of python programs. Coding standards and practices. Use and creation of software libraries. Examples drawn from data preparation and transformation, statistical data analysis, machine learning, deep learning, and deep data science including recommendation systems and trend analysis. Labs utilizing iPython and the Jupyter data analysis workflow framework.

Choose One Foundation Course:

COMP135  Introduction To Machine Learning And Data Mining – An overview of methods whereby computers can learn from data or experience and make decisions accordingly. Topics include supervised learning, unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning, and knowledge extraction from large databases with applications to science, engineering, and medicine.

or

COMP119 Big Data – Principles, practices, and tools for analyzing and interpreting large data sets. Distributed data stores and maintaining data consistency.  Query languages for data analysis, including SparQL. Scalable indexing strategies for data search, including SOLR. Map/Reduce and other parallel programming paradigms for data reduction and analysis. Supercomputing, high-performance storage, and strategies for assuring data locality and movement. Principles illustrated by applying common data analysis algorithms to large data sets. Prerequisites: COMP 15 and MATH 70, or graduate standing.

Choose One Elective Course:

  • ENP161 – Human Factors in Product and System Design
  • ENP162 – Human Factors in Human Machine Systems
  • ENP163 – Analytic Methods in Human Factors
  • ENP164 – Behavioral Statistics for Engineering

Assistive Design (4 Courses**)

The purpose of this certificate is to provide a technical credential to professionals interested in expanding their skill set to include designing for the needs of unique populations. A blend of human factors engineering and mechanical engineering, students in this certificate will learn the fundamentals of design in both of these fields and apply them to the design of assistive devices for the solution of real-world problems encountered by people in their daily and professional lives. In this certificate, unique populations will include professionals (e.g., veterinarians, dentists, and fire fighters) as we well as people with special needs (e.g., people with dementia or autism). The courses in this certificate also will fulfill requirements in both the MS in Human Factors Engineering and the MS in Mechanical Engineering. This program will be of value to students interested in engineering and/or human factors engineering. The successful certificate holders will be prepared to engage in product design in the fields of consumer products, medical technology, or to pursue further graduate study.

This program provides students with a unique opportunity to tailor their interests in product design to focus on optimizing for a user’s unique needs. Beyond designing within a niche market, students in this program will learn how to fulfill the unique needs of individual customers and clients with special and particular needs. Their skills will be of value in the fields of rehabilitation, medical technology, education, and specialty services where dedicated understanding of a user’s needs in product design are required. Students with a passion for service to the community will find this program particularly worthwhile.

Content

The program will operate as a graduate certificate, requiring participants to complete 4 graduate-level courses across the Human Factors Engineering Program and Mechanical Engineering Department. The program has one required course in either Human Factors or Mechanical Engineering pertaining to assistive design, two foundation courses in design, and an elective course in either Human Factors or Mechanical Engineering.

Required Course:
• ENP193 Designing Physical Solutions for Unique Populations* – This Human Factors Engineering course provides students with the opportunity to apply human-centered design techniques to the creation of physical solutions of unique populations of participating clients. Students in this course are paired with students in ME 193,
or
• ME193 Designing Physical Solutions for Unique Populations* – This Mechanical Engineering course provides students with the opportunity to apply mechanical engineering design and manufacturing techniques to the creation of physical solutions of unique populations of participating clients. Students in this course are paired with students in ENP 193.

Choose Both Foundation Courses:
• ME102 Inventive Design – The invention, design, and development of new products. The identification of product opportunities from marketing, manufacturing, and consumers’ viewpoints. The organization of new product effort within a corporation. Primary assignments are design projects that are presented before a jury of professionals in the field.
Recommendations: Senior Standing.
and
• ENP162 – Human-machine System Design – Techniques for man-machine system designs in which cognitive and dynamic aspects are of major importance. Applications to computer-interface design, auto/semiautomated systems, biomedical systems, and others. Topics include information processing, decision making, reaction times, and signal detection theory. Individual and group projects, laboratory demonstrations.

Choose One Elective Course:
• Select one additional 100-level course in ENP or ME.

Faculty offering courses in this program will include:
• Daniel Hannon – Mechanical Engineering
• James Intriligator – Mechanical Engineering
• Gary Leisk – Mechanical Engineering

 “Assistive Technologies” certificate program run through the Occupational Therapy department:

Check out this related program that might be of interest:  

https://asegrad.tufts.edu/academics/explore-graduate-programs/assistive-technology#1

 

Tuition
Please see the Graduate Programs website for information about current tuition rates.

** NOTE, Tufts has an mechanism (University College) that allows people to take just a one-off class.  If this is of interest, you can browse course offerings here:   https://universitycollege.tufts.edu/courses