Purdue Assoc. Prof. and Assoc. Head of Industrial Engineering Steven Landry nominated Reinert for possible positions in the Aviation Human Factors Research group at the FAA’s Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI), and Dr. Katrina Avers invited Reinert to work in the "Failure to Follow Procedures" position.

Reinert applied early in 2016. “First, I was looking for an opportunity to grow as a human factors professional and expand my current skill set before my own research consumed my time. Second, while I have other human factors research experiences on my resume, I realized I do not have experience with human factors and policy making. This fellowship provided an opportunity to learn,” said Reinert. “I have not worked with maintenance crew. This fellowship offered me an opportunity to expand into an area where I had little knowledge.”

Reinert will join researchers on a project to investigate if a significant change in the volume and severity of errors in established maintenance procedures across General Aviation, Rotorcraft, and Commercial Aviation maintenance facilities occurred between 1980 and 2015 and if these changes were above and beyond the number of deviations expected to arise by chance alone for the volume of aircraft processed by a facility. Text data will be analyzed using a cross-sectional longitudinal method to assess if the adoption rate of new maintenance policies influences the number of errors in established maintenance procedures. The results of this study will help the FAA, aviation policy analysts, and maintenance organizations identify root causes of maintenance failure.

The fellowship will run May 22-July 30, and includes a stipend and some travel funds. Reinert is one of three Purdue students named to this fellowship program and the only IE grad student.

The mission of PEGASAS is to enhance general aviation safety, accessibility, and sustainability by partnering the FAA with a national network of world-class researchers, educators and industry leaders. Besides Purdue, other universities in the partnership include the Ohio State University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the Florida Institute of Technology, Iowa State University and Texas A&M University.