James R. Sayer
Dr. James R. Sayer is an associate research scientist in UMTRI's Human Factors Division. He also serves as cochair of the University of Michigan's Behavioral Sciences Institutional Review Board (IRB). Dr. Sayer has conducted human factors and transportation related research at UMTRI since 1993. He earned a Ph.D. and M.S. in industrial and systems engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Human Factors Option, and a B.S. in psychology from the University of Michigan.
Dr. Sayer has conducted research in the areas of driver assistance and advanced safety systems, naturalistic driving behavior, driver vision and pedestrian conspicuity. In the area of driver assistance systems he has contributed to the development, evaluation, and deployment of adaptive cruise control, collision warning, and collision avoidance systems in both passenger cars and commercial heavy trucks (including simulator, test-track, on-road, and field-operational testing). He has overseen the conduct of three large field operational tests involving more than 350 lay drivers accumulating over 375,000 miles of naturalistic driving data. Specific areas of research interest related to driver vision include the effects of hydrophobic and hydrophilic glass coatings, window tinting, and defrosters/defoggers on visual performance and driving behavior. On the topic of pedestrian conspicuity he has performed multiple research studies concerning the effects of retroreflective markings and safety garment design on the detection of pedestrians, emergency responders and road construction workers.
Dr. Sayer has taught an undergraduate course in human factors engineering and a graduate level course in human factors in transportation. He has headed several UMTRI research contracts, and currently serves as the project director of the Integrated Vehicle-Based Safety Systems Field Operational Test (IVBSS FOT) program. He has authored many technical reports and journal articles, and regularly consults for automotive manufacturers, suppliers and the federal government.
