Facilities
The ASH program has a wide range of research facilities available to the ASH trainees. Core ASH research facilities include the Agricultural Ergonomics Research Center (AERC), the Agricultural Safety and Health Laboratory (ASHL), the Occupational Biomechanics Laboratory (OBL), and the Western Center for Agricultural Equipment (WCAE), all within the department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering (BAE) at UC Davis. These units have a wide range of equipment to conduct engineering, ergonomic, biomechanical, and physiological experiments and evaluations both in field and laboratory settings.
The ASHL's mission includes designing and evaluating engineering interventions that decrease the possibility and severity of injuries in agricultural machinery accidents. The lab includes equipment to measure the physical and ergonomic factors that may put farmworkers at risk of injury or death while operating agricultural machinery. The WCAE provides support for research, academic and outreach activities related to power and machinery, particularly agricultural equipment. The WCAE is an 18,000 ft2 building that includes a 1,500 ft2 lecture room, 2,000 ft2 general teaching lab, 4,000 ft2 project lab, and a 3,000 ft2 fabrication shop, along with several acres of field research space. The AERC has dedicated research space at the WCAE to conduct controlled and field research. The WCAE facilities complement the BAE department main's Engineering Design & Development Services, which include four adjoining facilities: machine shop, metal fabrication shop, wood and plastics fabrication shop, and microprocessor development lab. Additional research facilities and equipment are available through the research programs of each individual ASH core and affiliated faculty members. All these facilities and laboratories will be available to the ASH trainees in support of their doctoral research activities.
Equipment
The following is a sample of equipment and devices available to the ASH trainees; a wide range of additional equipment and resources are available from the program’s core and affiliated faculty members:
- Lumbar Motion Monitors (LMMs)
- Biometrics portable and laboratory data collection systems (DataLog and DataLink), with a large assortments of interface devices (electrogoniometers, digital force gauges, etc.)
- Bertec 3-D forceplate
- Biopac data collection system
- Electromyography (EMG) systems
- FSA pressure mapping systems
- Portable data logging systems
- Portable inclinometers
- Anthropometric measurement kits (e.g., GPM)
- Human Modeling systems (SAMMIE CAD and AnyBody)