Professional Pilot Program

The Professional Pilot Program is a two-year program at UIUC. During the first year, the student begins to select a baccalaureate degree-granting major available through any college and department at the University. The major must be determined no later than sophomore year. At the end of 60 hours of course work or approximately two years of study, you will transfer to another college and department and will actually graduate from the University with a BA/BS from that college/department. Both the degree/major and aviation certificate appear on the student’s official transcript. - Tell me more

B.S. in Aviation Human Factors Program

The study of human factors focuses on how to make both airplanes and the pilots who fly them safer and more effective.
This curriculum involves two core components.

The first includes an instructional sequence of professional pilot training courses that will enable the students to obtain their FAA private, instrument, commercial, multi-engine, and flight instructor certificates and ratings.

The second component is the human factors core which includes cockpit resource management, aviation psychology, and aviation accident investigation and analysis. Additionally, you will fulfill the university general education requirements and will also be able to complete an outside area of concentration in another related field, such as Business, Economics, Speech Communications, Adult and Continuing Education, Geography, Psychology, etc., which will complement the two core aviation program. You will also complete thirty-four hours of elective courses, some of which will be used toward the outside area of concentration and must be approved by an adviser.

This curriculum will prepare graduates to be productive members of the aviation industry. All U.S. airlines now recognize the importance of human factors and cockpit resource (crew resource) training in the prevention of accidents and the enhancement of flight safety. With modern technology and design, the greatest factor in airline safety is now the man/machine interface and the elimination of human error. This program will help fill a need in industry and, in the long term, improve aviation safety. - Tell me more

M.S. in Human Factors Program

Human Factors, the science of understanding and supporting how people interact with technology, draws upon and creates knowledge in at least three traditional academic disciplines. First, the mental component of these interactions draws upon and contributes to psychology and the study of the mind and brain. Second, the central role of design in human factors draws upon and contributes to engineering approaches for systems analysis and modeling. Third, the representation of information flow between people and technology draws upon and contributes to computer, communication and information science. Finally, the human-technology systems themselves providing the context of human factors reflect diverse areas such as aviation, healthcare, automobiles, computers, the Internet, medical devices, consumer products, power generation, criminal justice, and fire fighting.

Our program at the University of Illinois is truly interdisciplinary with a faculty representing a range of expertise from engineering to liberal arts and whose interests range from theoretical development to practically relevant research guiding design, training, and the use of automation. Faculty backgrounds include psychology, communication, computer science, information science, industrial engineering, and aerospace engineering.

The strengths of our faculty lie in both of the complementary approaches that characterize most modern human factors research activity: In applied psychology, the methods, theories, and findings from psychological science are applied to creating interventions such as training and design to enhance system safety and performance, while in cognitive engineering, analysis and modeling techniques from the engineering, computer, and cognitive sciences are applied to inform the overall design of human-technology systems. - Tell me more