Fellows spotlight

Integrating human insight into complex systems

Everything BMT delivers ultimately comes back to people - operators, maintainers, commanders, decision-makers and end users. Chris’s work is grounded in the belief that systems only deliver value if they support the humans within them, especially under real operational pressures. By embedding human performance thinking at the heart of design and delivery, he helps reduce risk, improve performance and ensure capability is genuinely fit for purpose.

Chris brings a strategic, cross-disciplinary perspective to these challenges, working closely with engineering, operational and policy teams. His role often involves translating between disciplines -connecting technical decisions to human consequences, and ensuring that capability outcomes reflect how systems will actually be used.

A growing role for human factors

As autonomy, AI and increasingly integrated systems become more prevalent, the role of Human Factors is not diminishing - it is evolving. Chris sees strong growth in areas such as human-autonomy teaming, decision support and trust in complex systems. As technology advances, the cognitive demands on people increase, making it even more important to design systems that help people succeed, rather than simply function at a technical level.

Supporting our customers

Chris emphasises the importance of asking the right questions early. For customers, this means going beyond technical compliance to understand how a system will be operated, what success looks like in context, and how decisions will be made when time, information and attention are constrained. By placing human performance at the centre of design and assurance - not as a checkbox, but as a value driver - Chris helps customers unlock better outcomes and avoid downstream risk.

"The challenge is rarely the people or the process - it’s the lens we use. Human Factors helps us see what really matters before risk becomes reality."

Fellowship focus: improving insight through immersive technologies

Chris’s Fellowship project explores how immersive technologies can be used to improve the identification of risk and performance considerations in complex systems. While structured reviews and risk assessments are essential, he recognises that traditional settings can sometimes limit what is noticed, shared or fully understood. His work investigates how aligning the review environment with how people perceive, think and communicate can sharpen insight - particularly in the early detection of risk or performance gaps.

The aim is not to replace existing processes, but to enhance them, helping experienced teams gain clearer, richer understanding during reviews and assurance activities.

Collaboration and progress

The work draws on collaboration across BMT teams in Australia and the UK, alongside ongoing engagement with academic experts in human performance and related disciplines. Early conceptual and design work is underway, with initial use cases being shaped in partnership with engineering and assurance specialists. The next step is to test these concepts in practical settings, refine them based on feedback, and develop tools that integrate seamlessly with our existing review practices.

Why Chris values the Fellowship

Chris’s research builds on what we already do well: experienced people, strong processes and deep technical expertise. But even with the right ingredients, important issues can still go unseen. Sometimes the challenge is not the people or the process - but the setting, perspective or lens being applied. As a BMT Fellow, Chris is focused on sharpening that lens, strengthening insight, and helping teams make better-informed decisions where it matters most.

Principal Consultant

Want to learn more about Chris' role or the human factors solutions we offer? Connect with him on LinkedIn.