Daniela Barragan

I received my Associate’s degree in Social and Behavioral Sciences, Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, and Master’s degree in Human Factors and Applied Cognition. I am a research analyst at Westat, a doctoral student at George Mason University studying Human Factors and Applied Cognition with an emphasis on surface transportation, and I am teaching a research methods lab. Additionally, I am on the board of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society student chapter and I am the webmaster for the Human Factors and Applied Cognition graduate program at George Mason University.

 

In late 2014, I received an academic scholarship from the Women in Transportation Seminar Foundation for my work in transportation. My experience in this field includes both applied and academic research. As a research analyst in the Human Factors Transportation Safety Department at Westat, I have gained knowledge about writing and submitting grant proposals, attending client meetings, working with remote partners, and authoring technical reports. I am the project manager and lead author for the Human Factors Guidelines for Transportation Management Centers (TMCs). Once published, this guidelines manual will be distributed and implemented in every TMC throughout the nation. I am also working on a project measuring driver behavior and the effectiveness of Arterial Travel Time (ATT) displayed on Dynamic Message Signs (DMS) in reducing highway congestion. For this project, I successfully secured a partnership with Virginia Department of Transportation to conduct this research.

 

As a graduate research assistant for the Mason Transportation Institute and Auditory Research Group, I am currently conducting research on internal and external driver distraction as part of a grant I am funded on through NHTSA. The driving studies I conduct involve using either a low-fidelity driving simulator or a high-fidelity 360-degree, motion-based driving simulator. I have recently been measuring driver behavior using physiological measures including 64-channel active EEG, ECG (R-R intervals, RMSSD, bpm), respiration (RSA, bpm), eye-tracking (horizontal gaze, PERCLOS, blink rate, pupil dilation), and posture. 

 

Additionally, I have presented and published peer-review and technical reports focusing on transportation, mental workload, spatial ability, and interruptions. I have professional memberships to several societies and provide service to these societies including presenting research, peer reviewing manuscript submissions, and chairing conference sessions.