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Carl Westin

Assistant Professor

What is it doing? Why is it doing that? What happened now? My research focuses on how operators interact and understand automation and how we can design automation to improve human-automation collaboration.

Human factors research on human-automation collaboration in safety-critical working environments

We are becoming increasingly dependent on automation in our profession and private life. In parallel, automation is growing more capable and complex, making it increasingly more difficult to understand. Issues of misunderstanding and mistrust of automation are particular concerns in safety-critical working environments where human operators supervise the automation and are required to assume control if needed (e.g., aviation, maritime, rail, road, and process industry). As a Human Factors (ergonomics) researcher, my mission lies in studying the physiological and psychological interaction between humans and automation and designing automation that better supports the collaboration between humans and automation. The goal is to enhance safety, improve comfort, increase efficiency, and reduce breakdowns between humans and automation.   

My main research interests center on empirical studies in safety-critical transportation domains, such as flight decks, air traffic control, and maritime operations. My focus has been on understanding the relationship between humans and machines from the perspective of human behavior and cognition and exploring automation designs that work in symbiosis with humans while supporting safety and efficiency. I am particularly interested in personalized automation (i.e., strategic conformal automation), transparent automation, and solutions to applying eye-tracking technologies in active operations and simulator training.

For thirteen years, I have combined the role of an academic researcher and a commercial pilot.

More information about my research and academic profile can be found on:

Publications

2023

Vanessa Rodrigues, Carl Westin, Stefan Holmlid (Editorship) (2023) This space intentionally left [blank]
M. Cocchioni, S. Bonelli, Carl Westin, C. Borst, Magnus Bång, B. Hilburn (2023) Learning for Air Traffic Management: guidelines for future AI systems 12TH EASN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON "INNOVATION IN AVIATION & SPACE FOR OPENING NEW HORIZONS", Article 012105 (Conference paper) Continue to DOI

2022

Karljohan Lundin Palmerius, Mikael Henriksson, Carl Westin, Jonas Lundberg (2022) Digital Tower Assistant Functionality and Design: Planning, Analysis and Operative Interfaces based on Workshops with ATCOs
Elmira Zohrevandi, Carl Westin, Katerina Vrotsou, Jonas Lundberg (2022) Exploring Effects of Ecological Visual Analytics Interfaces on Experts' and Novices' Decision‐Making Processes: A Case Study in Air Traffic Control Computer graphics forum (Print), Vol. 41, p. 453-464 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Elmira Zohrevandi, Carl Westin, Jonas Lundberg, Anders Ynnerman (2022) Design and Evaluation Study of Visual Analytics Decision Support Tools in Air Traffic Control Computer graphics forum (Print), Vol. 41, p. 230-242 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI

Education

PhD in Human Factors, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, 2017     


MSc in Applied Ergonomics, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, 
2012

Air Traffic Pilot - University diploma. School of aviation, Lund University, Sweden, 2006

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