Our latest paper, "Verbal and nonverbal communication differences between in-person and live-streamed group physical activity: a specific investigation into yoga instruction", is now available online in Ergonomics. The project was started during the Covid pandemic to address communication differences in live-streamed exercise programs. Even though the pandemic has passed, there is still a rising demand and shift toward remote exercise platforms and from-home workouts. In our work, we quantitatively investigated potential communication gaps when using existing video conferencing platforms for group physical activity classes and provided design guidelines for improved instructor-participant interactions.

Read more about this from the full article: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00140139.2025.2478619?src=exp-la#abstract

Thanks to my advisor Sol Lim, and our collaborators Samantha Harden, and Sang Won Lee for their valuable support and guidelines in publishing this work. 

I am happy to announce that I have been selected to receive the Pratt Fellowship for research from the Virginia Tech College of Engineering (Office of Research and Innovation). I will keep contributing the Human Factors community with impactful and meaningful research.

Our latest work, "Changes in forklift driving performance and postures among novices resulting from training using a high-fidelity virtual reality simulator: An exploratory study," has been published in the International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics.

Islam, M.S., Zahabi, S., Kim, S., Lau, N., Nussbaum, M., and Lim, S. (2024). Changes in Forklift Driving Performance and Postures among Novices Resulting from Training Using a High‑Fidelity Virtual Reality Simulator: An Exploratory Study. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 104, 103648. DOI: 10.1016/j.ergon.2024.103648

In this study, we explored the impact of repeated VR forklift training on task performance and kinematic adaptations in 20 novice participants. VR training showed reduced completion time over multiple trials, and we found that reduced movement variability was linked to improved performance, while precision tasks required greater variability. Our results demonstrate VR's effectiveness as a training tool for novice drivers and suggest that monitoring kinematics can be valuable for tracking skill acquisition.

Thanks to my advisor (Sol Lim) and my co-authors in this paper (Saman Jamshid Nezhad Zahabi, Sunwook Kim, Nathan K. C. Lau, Maury Nussbaum). 

My paper titled "Sex and Age Differences in Virtual Reality (VR) Sickness Susceptibility in Forklift Driving Simulation" was selected as the Best Paper from the Extended Reality Technical Group. This research is part of my dissertation, and my sincere gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Sol Lim for helping with this research and manuscript writing.

I have received a travel scholarship award from the HFES Healthcare Technical Group (Thanks Megan Salwei and Abigail Wooldridge). This award is given to students with an accepted paper or poster with HCTG and also takes into consideration the travel need, service to HFES and diversity within HCTG. I am really thankful to HCTG for this award.

The Virginia Tech HFES Chapter was selected to receive the Gold Award for the outstanding student chapter. I, as the immediate past President of the chapter received the award along with current and past chapter officers, advisors, and members. 

I presented two papers titled "Sex and Age Differences in Virtual Reality (VR) Sickness Susceptibility in Forklift Driving Simulation" and "Multimodal Feedback to Improve Performance of Order Picker Truck Drivers Using a Virtual Reality Simulator" at the ASPIRE HFES Annual Meeting in Phoenix Arizona. I also got to try Waymo, a driverless ride-sharing service, which was pretty cool.

I was named the runner-up for the 2024 Dieter W. Jahns Student Practitioner Award, organized by the Foundation for Professional Ergonomics!

My documented project "A Comprehensive Evaluation of Multimodal Feedback to Aid Virtual Reality Forklift Training", showcased an innovative way to improve forklift drivers' performance using virtual reality training. The project was supervised by my advisor, Dr. Sol Lim.

I am very happy to announce that I have been selected as the Outstanding Ph.D. Student by the Virginia Tech Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. I am highly honored and grateful for this recognition. Massive thanks to my advisor Dr. Sol Lim, who has been a constant source of motivation and support since even before I started my Ph.D. Thanks for submitting my nomination for this award. It's been an amazing journey as your student. 🥰😃🥳
Also, I am immensely grateful to Drs. Maury Nussbaum, Myounghoon Jeon, and Rafael N. C. Patrick, Ph.D. for their letter of support that strengthened my nomination. 

A paper titled "Barriers and Benefits of Online Group Exercise Programs for Older Adults" has been published in the Journal of Applied Gerontology.

Islam, M. S., Frazier, M. C., Harden, S. M., & Lim, S. (2024). Barriers and Benefits of Online Group Exercise Programs for Older Adults. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 07334648241240599. https://doi.org/10.1177/073346482412405

I have started a new role as the President for the Virginia Tech's Human Factors and Ergonomics Society chapter. I will serve in this role for the Spring 2024 semester.

I have been selected to receive the HFES Student Member with Honors Award. The award was presented at the 67th HFES Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. This year, 13 students from different institutions received this award, and three of them were from Virginia Tech. Also, since the inception of this award in 1999, I am the first Bangladeshi to receive it. I am really grateful to my Advisor, Dr. Sol Lim, whose unwavering support has made it possible.
The HFES Student Chapter at Virginia Tech also received Silver level award, which I, as the Vice President, along with my fellow chapter officers received.

I have presented my research on "Forklift Driving Performance of Novices with Repeated VR-based Training" at the 67th HFES Annual Meeting in Washington DC. I also served as a session chair for one of the session by the Extended Reality Technical Group (XRTG). I attended XRTG's business meeting and met some of the new and past officers. I will be serving XRTG for one more year in my current role as the Social Media Manager/Communications Director. Also, for the first time, I met Bangladeshi HFE researchers in HFES, representing different U.S. labs and universities. Overall, it was a great experience.

I along with three other Virginia Tech ISE Students, have been selected in the Future Faculty Fellows program, organized by the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineering (IISE). 

I have been selected to attend two full-day virtual workshop, jointly organized by Northeastern UNIVERSITY, Harvard Medical School, Boston University, and Bay Path University. This workshop familiarized me with life in academia, finding an institutional fit, designing a first‑year start plan and curriculum, and crafting research, teaching, and diversity statements.

I have received the Associate Human Factors Professional Certificate from the Board of Certification for Professional Ergonomics. Looking forward to receive my full certification.

Dr. Sol Lim's research group hosted Greg Smiley (Industrial Design Manager) and Melissa Schmitz (Emerging Technologies Research Engineer) from the Raymond Corporation. Ph.D. studuent Shaifqul accompanied the team and toured Dr. Lim's lab as well as organized a student networking event through the HFES Student Chapter at VT.

I presented about my home country of Bangladesh in the annual Virginia Tech ISE international night with my fellow Bangladeshi ISE students Saimon and Xames.

I have started a new role as the Vice President for the Virginia Tech's Human Factors and Ergonomics Society chapter. I will serve in this role for the 2023 calendar year.

I have started a new role as the Engagement Officer for the Center for Human Computer-Interaction at Virginia Tech. I will serve in this role for the 2023 calendar year.

I received my MEng degree from Virginia Tech's ISE department.

I have presented my research on Observational study to identify verbal and nonverbal communication difference between online and in-person physical exercise in the Center for Human Computer-Interaction's Hack n Yak event.

A paper titled "Effects of Vibrotactile Feedback on Yoga Practice" has been published in Frontiers in Sports and Active Living. I was the first author of this paper and am grateful to the co-authors for their support.

Islam, M. S., Lee, S. W., Harden, S. M., & Lim, S. (2022). Effects of vibrotactile feedback on yoga practice. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 4, 1005003. DOI: 10.3389/fspor.2022.1005003

I attended the 66th HFES annual meeting and presented my paper titled, "An Observational Study Investigating Verbal Communication Differences in Online vs. In‑person Group Exercise Training". I am thankful to all the co-authors and especially my advisor Dr. Sol Lim for her guidance and support.

During this annual meeting, the HFES VT student chapter received the silver award for outstanding student chapter. I was serving as the communications director for the chapter at that time.

I passed my Ph.D. preliminary exam. I presented a research proposal titled, "Adaptive Exercise Performance Assessment Following User Orientation". In this research, I intend to develop an algorithm that can be used for more accurate performance assessment using computer-vision based motion capturing. The findings of this research will help me towards bulding a home-based exercise system.
With passing this exam, I am now a Ph.D. candidate. Thankful to all my committee members for their guidance and comments.

A paper titled "Vibrotactile feedback in virtual motor learning: A systematic review" has been published in Applied Ergonomics. I was the first author of this paper. This is also the first journal publication since I started my Ph.D. Thanks to my advisor Dr. Sol Lim for her guidance, motivation, and encouragement.

Islam, M. S., & Lim, S. (2022). Vibrotactile feedback in virtual motor learning: A systematic review. Applied Ergonomics, 101, 103694. DOI: 10.1016/j.apergo.2022.103694

I have started my Ph.D. at the Industrial and Systems Engineering department of Virginia Tech. I will be continuing to work under Dr. Sol Lim's supervision.