Page 4 - 2018 RF Annual Report 28 PDF for Web

AIR SP A CE OPER A TIONS SIMUL A TION

CONNIE BRASIL

DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY,
HUMAN SYSTEMS INTEGRATION
COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
SPONSOR: NASA
Given its congested airspace, flight delays in and
out of New York airports are the norm. With so many flights
arriving from the west coast, mid-west and internationally,
there is minimal airspace and fewer departing slots available
for the arrival of ‘internal flights,’ those coming into New York
from what are considered local areas, like Washington D.C. or
Boston.
Three thousand miles away in Mountain View,
California, researcher Connie Brasil is creating and testing an
integrated demand management system that could get more
aircraft into New York-area airports on time and reduce both
arrival and departure delays.
“Integrating the FAA’s Traffic Flow Management
System with the FAA’s Trajectory Based Flow Management
systems can help ease the congestion and delay problems
within the New York airspace,” she explains. However, as Connie explains, “A lot can change in 400
miles. If we moved that system in closer to the airport, when
One method to accomplish this is to modify the they are ~200 miles out, we would have a much more accurate
way traffic is scheduled and adjust departure times to meet reading of the order in which aircraft will approach the airport.
the airport capacity. Another tactic is to integrate the way An integration of both methods would allow us to smooth out
time-based metering tools are used. At present, the system traffic flow, ensure departure slots for ‘internal flights’ and
schedules arrivals based on planes’ positions at 400 miles. reduce delays.”

In the simulated environment in our NASA lab, My responsibilities are developing, debugging
we can research and test futuristic air traffic and maintaining an application that is critical to
management concepts. It allows me to delve deeper into Integrated Demand Management research. Although my
the brain and the underlying mechanisms that control what degree will be in Computer Science, I’ve been encouraged
we do and how we think. Where does the biology stop and to use this opportunity to increase my aviation knowledge
the psychology begin? and gain a grasp of the overall system.
Gita S. Hodell, ’17 MS Research & Experimental Psychology Sahil V. Motadoo, ’18 MS Computer Science
Research Associate at NASA Student Research Assistant at NASA

4 ANNU AL REP OR T 2018