Divya passed her PhD Preliminary Examination and is now officially a PhD candidate. Divya's research is on runway incursions. A runway incursion occurs when an aircraft operates on a runway without proper authorization. This incorrect presence of an aircraft increases the chances of a catastrophic ground collision. At present, air traffic controller-generated incident reports are a major source of past incursions but most reports don't explain the underlying causes of incursion, limiting our ability to reduce the number of incursions. In her research, Divya is focusing on one aspect of incident reporting, the reporting form. She is investigating how controllers interact with different incident reporting forms. As a part of the experiment, she is creating an alternative reporting form that asks controllers specific questions on errors leading to the incursion and the causes behind these errors. In future, she will conduct think aloud protocols with two groups of air traffic controllers as they report a hypothetical incident either using the current form or the alternative form. The results of the protocol will help determine factors that affect the quality of incident reports they generate, and the usefulness of the forms in reporting runway incursion incidents.

 

Neelakshi completed her Phd qualifying requirements in Systems, Dynamics and Controls, and Mathematics. Neelakshi is working towards providing a better understanding of General Aviation accident causation. In her master’s research, she extended the state-based modeling approach developed by VRSS alum Arjun Rao for rotorcraft accidents, to fixed-wing accidents. The state-based approach uses data from historical accidents from the database and logical rules to model accidents. In her doctoral work, Neelakshi plans to study human factors related to pilot error and investigate how pilot actions and decisions affect flight risk.