Department of Human Kinetics and Ergonomics

Humans are the central factor in all activities of work life and society. No social, medical, technical or economical progress may take effect without humans being involved. Human health and performance are critical issues for a productive and successful individual and a progressing society. Human Kinetics and Ergonomics provides knowledge about the function and the reaction of the human body in order to: optimise human performance avoid injury and keep healthy in professional activities as well as in private life, and improve productivity and quality of output in all domains of work life. This is of essential importance for South African society to further develop and help individuals to a healthy, wealthy and independent lifestyle. The focus of the study is the Human factor at different activities and different conditions of life. We study human responses and reactions as well as the design of tasks, treatments, objects and environmental conditions according to the needs of the human. The unique approach of HKE is the holistic consideration of biomechanical, physiological, perceptual, mental and psycho-emotional aspects. This is jointly applied to improve human health, human performance and the productivity of human operations. HKE is an interdisciplinary subject that integrates knowledge from different disciplines, such as anatomy, biomechanics, neurology, psychology, sociology, anthropology, engineering, computer science, management, economics etc. This variety makes it a fascinating subject but also a challenging one. https://www.ru.ac.za/humankineticsandergonomics/