Bristol & Area

BARGES, the Bristol & Area Regional Group, was established in its current form by Janette Edmonds and Michael Goom in 1994. The emphasis was not just on trying to get fellow ergonomists together but to encourage the involvement of related disciplines such as physiotherapy, systems engineering, occupational health and health & safety. BARGES is now affiliated with several other regional professional groups including the Safety and Reliability Society and INCOSE.

The key aims of this group are:

• to provide our members with the opportunity to develop contacts within and outside the ergonomics profession
• to encourage other professionals to learn more about ergonomics
• to encourage ergonomists to learn more about other disciplines

Meetings are held at a variety of locations around Bristol and include a healthy mix of speakers and social activities. BARGES aims to meet six times a year with at least four presentation evenings and two socials. Members and non-members are welcome to attend all events, from anywhere in the UK.

The current group co-ordinator is Grant Hudson who is a Human Factors Consultant at Atkins Global. The steering committee currently comprises: Judith Ashley, a human factors specialist at MBDA; Ben Dawson, a human factors consultant at SEA; Chris Vance, a principal human factors engineer at MBDA; Steve Wells, a long-serving member of the committee who is now retired.

BARGES has held a healthy mix of presentation evenings and social events. A range of speakers from industry and academia have presented to BARGES in the last year on a diverse range of topics, including: the use of games technology within defence acquisition; an investigation into the concept of a paperless office; cognitive systems engineering and the application of Johnson’s Criteria to moving imagery. BARGES have also held a number of social evenings including pub quizzes and skittles evenings.

The group is currently drawing up a programme for the next year consisting of a variety of speakers including representatives from Dismounted Soldier Systems, nuclear industries and human factors research organisations. A number of social evenings are also planned throughout the course of the year so hopefully the schedule will have something for everyone in 2010.

It may seem a little corny to say it, but “Your regional group needs you!” It needs both presenters and attendees. There is no substitute to getting bums on seats at events and without the support of the local ergonomics community the group will cease to exist, so please get in touch with the organiser if you are interested in joining in.

Past meetings
3 November 2009: Investigation into "Johnsons Criteria" for Full Motion Video by Rob Stadden, (head of human factors at MBDA).
8 September 2009: 'Integrating human factors and systems engineering', at BAWA in Bristol.
3 February 2009:' Paperless to papermore - what happened?' by Professor Jan Noyes of the University of Bristol.
13 January 2009: 'Serious Games - the Human Factor' by Professor Bob Stone from the University of Birmingham.
2 September 2008: 'The challenges of managing human factors trade-offs in armoured fighting vehicle projects' by Rob Cummings.
4 December 2007:'Methods for Introducing Behavioural Safety into Organisations' by David Birkbeck.
4 September 2007: 'Assessment and Management of Organisational Change: A Nuclear Industry Case Study' by Stephen Taylor-Davies.
17 July 2007: BARGES social at The Hophouse.
5 June 2007: Workshop on 'Risk assessment within the healthcare environment' chaired by Sue Ruszala, Heather Kirton and Jude Connor.
3 April 2007: 'Techniques for Defining Human Factors System Requirements: How Many Ways Can You Skin a Ferret?' by Robert Cummins and Sam Ranasinghe.