International Conference on Human Factors in Design, Engineering, and Computing (AHFE 2025) Travel Report

By Ben Zheng

December 2025

In December 2025, I had the opportunity to present at the AHFE conference in Honolulu, HI. This was my first professional conference, and it was sponsored by the UW HCDE MS Student Conference Travel Support Program.

The conference was a three-day program. I presented my research paper, “Digital Copilots: Advancing Pilot Mental Health Through AI Chatbots and Systems,” during one of the conference sessions. This was also my first time presenting at a conference, and the experience was exciting and rewarding. After my presentation, several researchers in the audience approached me to discuss my work and commented on their respective projects.

Besides my own presentation, I also attended several other presentations led by leaders in the HCI and ergonomics field. One of the most interesting presentations focused on “Supporting Users’ Understanding of Driving Automation Systems,” in which the authors discussed the challenges users face when using driving automation systems and how these systems could be better improved to support various user needs. In addition, I enjoyed listening to another presentation on the evaluation of training effectiveness in a helicopter roll-tracking task. This was a topic I was not familiar with at all, and it was engaging to learn new insights about the intricacies and user needs involved in performing such a task.

Beyond the presentations, I also browsed many poster sessions at the conference. Some of the most engaging posters discussed user needs for submarine operators and improvements to the usability of various medical tools and technologies. Furthermore, many of the poster and paper presentations at the conference were linked to aviation and other transportation themes, which tied in well with my own research and presentation on AI tools for mental health in aviation.

I also made an effort to speak with as many people as possible at the conference to learn more about their research and backgrounds. I exchanged contact information with several researchers in hopes that we can stay in touch and remain informed about each other’s work in the future.

Overall, presenting my research at the AHFE conference was an incredibly educational and worthwhile opportunity. I learned about many new research topics, and this experience has encouraged me to think about ways to further improve and innovate within my own areas of research.

Again, I would like to thank the HCDE MS Student Conference Travel Support Program for this exciting and engaging opportunity. My experience at the conference would not have been possible without your generous support.