EQUAL Laboratory

EQUAL Ergonomic Quality, Usability & Accessibility Laboratory

EQUAL Laboratory – Ergonomic Quality, Usability & Accessibility Laboratory, is located at the Faculty of Management and Production Engineering of Lodz University of Technology.

It was established in 2015 with funding from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education granted to the Occupational Safety Engineering field of study, at the Faculty of Management and Production Engineering, in the Department of Production Management and Logistics and postgraduate studies “Ergonomics and Occupational Health and Safety”.

Laboratory employees:

The creation of the laboratory and its current shape is the result of the work of both current and former employees of the Department of Production Management and Logistics:

  • prof. dr hab. inż. Joanna Lecewicz-Bartoszewska,
  • prof. dr hab. inż. Jerzy Lewandowski
  • dr inż. Magdalena Wróbel-Lachowska.

EQUAL is a teaching and research laboratory that focuses on understanding the interaction between humans and other elements of systems. Students and researchers participate in the planning, design and evaluation of systems, organizations, environments, work processes, products, etc. The aim of these activities is to adapt the fore mentioned elements to human needs, capabilities and limitations with special attention to people with various disabilities, the elderly and other socially and professionally excluded groups both permanently and temporarily.

The laboratory implements the teaching and learning process in three areas of ergonomics according to the IEA division:

  • cognitive: which focuses on mental processes such as perception, memory, reasoning, information processing, and human cooperation with other system elements (projects carried out in the laboratory concern issues related to mental workload, analysis of decision-making processes, employee competencies, human-computer interaction, stress at work, and training),
  • organizational: which focuses on issues related to the optimization of sociotechnical systems, including their organizational structures, policies, and processes (the projects concern communication, organizational culture, human potential management, participatory design, new work paradigms, and work organization and design, including, e.g.: work time, teamwork, etc.)
  • physical: including determination of anatomical, anthropometric, physiological and biomechanical characteristics of a human being (current projects concern, among others, such issues as: body position at work, workspace design, transport of loads, monotypicality of work movements, physical load of work, musculoskeletal system (MSD) ailments caused by work, work safety and health).

The EQUAL Laboratory uses a socio- and anthropotechnical approach in implementing solutions so that technical innovations, models of work organization and professional development are closely connected with the economic and social environment taking into account the needs of all people.

Specialized equipment is used to carry out projects, which allows students to look at the world through the eyes of different people, showing the diversity of their needs, abilities and limitations.

Laboratorium EQUAL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Laboratorium EQUAL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Force monitoring and measuring devices
Photo: Jacek Szabela / Politechnika Łódzka

 

Urządzenia do monitorowania i pomiaru siły

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Urządzenia do monitorowania i pomiaru siły

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Devices for monitoring physical and mental activity to analyze, among other things, physical load, including energy expenditure, and identify stressful situations
Photo: Jacek Szabela / Politechnika Łódzka

 

Urządzenia/wyposażenie do modelowania stanowisk wyposażonych w monitory ekranowe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Urządzenia/wyposażenie do modelowania stanowisk wyposażonych w monitory ekranowe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Urządzenia/wyposażenie do modelowania stanowisk wyposażonych w monitory ekranowe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Devices/equipment for modelling workstations equipped with screen monitors
Foto: Jacek Szabela / Politechnika Łódzka

Contact

The text is an excerpt from an article published in the student magazine AION, published by the Disabled Persons Office of Lodz University of Technology.

https://www.p.lodz.pl/sites/default/files/pliki/pazdziernik_2020_lekki.pdf  p. 28-29

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