Fall 1999

ME/IE 8773-8774

The Dissemination of Tribal Knowledge in the National Aviation System

by

Philip J. Smith, Professor
Co-Director, Cognitive and Systems Engineering Laboratory
Industrial and Systems Engineering
Institute for Ergonomics
The Ohio State University
Columbus OH 43210

Wednesday, December 1, 1999
1:25 - 2:15 p.m.
Room 108 ME
Broadcast on UNITE Channel A
Coffee will be available in 152 ME following the seminar

The air traffic management system in the United States is an example of a distributed problem-solving system. It has elements of both cooperative and competitive problem-solving. This system includes complex organizations such as Airline Operations Centers (AOCs), the FAA Air Traffic Control Systems Command Center (ATCSCC), and traffic management units (TMUs) at enroute centers and TRACONs, all of which have a major focus on strategic decision-making. It also includes individuals concerned more with tactical decisions (such as air traffic controllers and pilots).

The architecture for this system has evolved over time to rely heavily on the distribution of tasks and control authority in order to keep cognitive complexity manageable for any one individual operator, and to provide redundancy (both human and technological) to serve as a safety net to catch the slips or mistakes that any one person or entity might make. Currently, major changes are being explored for this architecture, especially with respect to the locus of control, in an effort to improve efficiency and safety.

This talk will review a series of studies aimed at understanding how alternative architectures influence individual and overall system performance, with an emphasis on issues concerning:
1. Cognitive complexity
2. Feedback
3. Distribution and dissemination of knowledge
4. Tools to support distributed work
5. Design-induced error.

In addition, two software systems that have been developed, the Post-Operations Evaluation Tool (an operational system combining airline and FAA data in order to detect and quantify inefficiencies in the NAS) and the Collaborative Slide Annotation Tool (a tool to support asynchronous interactions between airline dispatchers and traffic managers) will be discussed.

Prof. Philip Smith's research is focused on a better understanding of how to engineer computer-based aids for problem-solving and education by combining cognitive science and artificial intelligence techniques. This involves a methodology which includes observation of subjects in the workplace or educational setting, empirical studies of subjects in more controlled laboratory settings, computer system design and implementation, cognitive simulation, as well as usability testing. Since the application domains of interest are knowledge intensive (like medicine) his research involves the use of knowledge-based artificial intelligence techniques in the implementation of both human-computer interfaces and in representing the knowledge embedded in problem-solving aids or intelligent tutoring systems.