Meet the participants - Katie

Katie Plant

In 2009 I joined the Transportation Research Group as a Human Factors researcher on the ALICIA aviation project funded by the European Union. ALICIA aims to develop new and scalable cockpit applications to extend aircraft operations in degraded visual conditions. My role is to provide Human Factors expertise to other partners in the project through experimental design solutions and supporting evaluation trials. Alongside this I am undertaking a part-time PhD looking at pilot decision making from the psychological perspective of Schema Theory. More information about my education and work history can be found on my LinkedIn page

I applied for the RENKEI opportunity because the chance to go to Japan was too tempting to resist (I've always wanted to eat ‘real’ sushi!) I have always loved to travel and experience new cultures. I was fortunate enough to do my undergraduate placement year in Sydney, Australia. Since then  various international conferences and European meetings have allowed me to see a bit more of the world, but Japan will be something entirely new to me. Travelling aside, I feel genuinely privileged to have been selected for RENKEI. In my application I wrote that “collaboration is often cited but rarely achieved”. I am most looking forward to the collaborative elements of the program. The opportunity to meet other researchers, both from the UK and Japan, and to have the chance to foster real partnerships and research opportunities will be invaluable. RENKEI requires its participants to be ambassadors for their country; I feel lucky and proud to live in the UK and will take great delight in showcasing the ‘Best of British’.

I will be attending the RENKEI program with my 'Human Factors hat' on. Human Factors is a research discipline with people and technology at its core; it provides the theories and tools to model the impact of the technological changes faced by societies today. Specifically, I work in transport human factors and I think there is lots of scope to explore cross-cultural differences in this domain. For example, Japan has the lowest car usage of all the G8 countries but is one of the most densely populated. I am interested to see what lessons can be learnt in relation to modal shift. It will also be interesting to see the influence of  Japan's collectivist culture, for example in relation to communications on flight decks.  

When I’m not at work I can be found running around the village lanes of Wiltshire and participating in Saturday morning parkruns (give me a spare two minutes and I will try and persuade you to sign up , it's brilliant). This then allows me to indulge in my favorite past time; drinking a glass of red wine with good friends or a good book. Simple pleasures! 

If you want to keep up-to-date with my RENKEI experiences (and general life musings) via twitter I’m @klplant1