1-10 of 22 results

  • Evaluating Simulation Tools to Study the Impact of Space Shuttle Launch on the National Air Transportation System

    PI Ahmed Abdelghany

    The objective of this project is to provide a comparative study to evaluate the functionalities of the available airspace simulation tools.

    In particular, the objective is to evaluate how these available simulation tools can be used to capture the impact of space shuttle launch on the National Air Transportation System. This impact could be in the form of flight delays, flight cancellations, trajectory amendments, etc.

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Volusia County Transportation Challenge: A Commentary Report on Volusia County's Long Range Transportation Plan

    PI Ahmed Abdelghany

    The objective of this project is to evaluate the long-term (5-10 years) transportation plan of Volusia county.

    The plan includes the list of all transportation construction projects that are proposed by the county. The objective is to study these projects together with their validation study and verify their importance for the county.

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Increasing student learning and engagement using a TV series: Leadership in the Final Frontier

    PI Anke Arnaud

    Educators are continuously concerned with developing innovative and effective teaching methodology to increase student learning and engagement. This study is designed to assess the effectiveness of an innovative instructional methodology, using a TV series to teach and develop leadership understanding, skills and knowledge.

    During a semester long class on leadership, students were taught abstract leadership concepts and theories using Episodes from the Star Trek Series. We used inductive reasoning methodology, watching an episode of Star Trek and then developing leadership theory, and deductive reasoning methodology, learning about a leadership theory and then analyzing the theory using an episode of Star Trek, to develop leadership understanding, skills and knowledge. Student journal entries, questionnaires on student engagement and learning, and end of course evaluations were used to assess the effectiveness of the teaching methodology. Results support our expectation that student learning and engagement can be enhanced using the effective application of TV episodes.

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Automated Homework System: Improving Teaching Quality by Utilizing Technology

    PI Farshid Azadian

    One of the essential elements in improving the students' skills and abilities and helping them to better understand the course materials is homework assignments. A well designed and purposeful homework not only enhances the student's understanding but also may provide valuable feedback to instructors.

    However, the process of designing and grading homework assignments are laborious from the instructor's perspective for large classes. Moreover, similarity of the assignments for all students set the stage for potential plagiarism which when is left undetected can set an undesirable ethical precedence.
    In this research, our objective is to provide an automated procedure that assists instructors to utilize homework assignments more productively and reduces the possibility of unethical practices. Our main idea is to create a tool that uses the existing teaching resources to produce individual (non-identical) homework assignments for each student, automatically grade them and provide feedback to students.

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Aircraft Boarding Strategies

    PI Massoud Bazargan

    Airlines today employ various strategies to cut costs and become lean and efficient.

    One of the ways that this can be achieved is by improving the boarding process since airplanes only make money while they are in the air. This paper uses simulation approach to deal specifically with the boarding strategies in use today by the major airlines. To properly simulate the boarding process, the simulation model accounts for passenger interferences (aisle & seat), the time it takes to stow away baggage, and the passenger arrival rate through the main cabin door. We applied our simulation model to study the AirTran Boeing 737-700 short haul aircraft. We looked at five major boarding strategies from random to the customary back to front and the results are very encouraging. Our analyses identifies that the arrival rate has an effect on the total boarding time and that the Reverse Pyramid and Window middle Aisle (WilMA) were among the efficient boarding strategies.

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Aircraft Replacement Strategy

    PI Massoud Bazargan



    The analyses of this study attempts to address:
    • How the cost data relevant to this study, such as aircraft market values, lease prices, operations and maintenance costs were compiled and analyzed as the airlines do not or cannot provide them.
    • Identify aircraft replacement strategies for the airlines and explore their differences according to their business models.
    • Compare and contrast the recommended and current aircraft replacement strategies for the airlines.
    • Identify decisions with respect to lease and/or buy for the airlines and how sensitive these strategies are to changes to aircraft values and lease prices.
    • Explore future fleet diversity for the airlines and how sensitive these strategies are to their existing and on-order fleet.
    • How the fixed costs pertaining to aircraft buy and/or lease compare and contrast with variable costs such as operations and maintenance over the planning horizon.

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • A Database Management System for General Aviation Safety

    PI Massoud Bazargan

    CO-I Michael Williams

    CO-I Alan Stolzer

    The research team at Embry-Riddle proposes to conduct a series of analyses to find patterns and associations among general aviation (GA) accidents and incidents.

    This research work is intended to provide the FAA with analyses of fatal and non-fatal accidents by examining the NTSB database and recommending strategies to mitigate risks associated with such events.Some of the potential studies that the team proposes to conduct include: analysis of primary ten causes leading to fatal and non-fatal accidents for each region by aircraft complexity and pilot demographics, statistical analyses on existing General Aviation accidents and incidents NTSB database on a national and regional basis to identify associations and patterns between flight elements and risk factors. This study will address multiple factors including pilots' demographics, light conditions, weather conditions and equipment used.

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • A Simulation Approach to Manpower Planning at Continental Airlines

    PI Massoud Bazargan

    This research relates to the development of a computerized line maintenance simulation model for strategic manpower planning at Continental Airlines for one of their major maintenance stations at Newark airport.

    The simulation model provides guidelines to the development of enhanced staffing models and a better understanding of resource requirements on a daily basis. The proposed simulation model could be used as a tool to support the management of the line maintenance department in solving various capacity planning issues related to the manpower requirement and scheduling. The recent capabilities of simulation modeling, namely optimization modeling is adopted in search of enhanced shift schedule of technicians that would improve the efficiency of the existing system.

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • A Simulation Study to Determine Optimal Shipping Strategy

    PI Massoud Bazargan

    The purpose of the project is to develop a simulation that can serve as means for choosing the optimal shipping option based on given criteria.

    This project comes from AAR Airlift, a maintenance supply chain organization that frequently sends packages overseas. The ultimate goal is to develop two separate deliverables for AAR Airlift airline efficient use of available resources and reduce flight delays. The project uses simulation for one full day of an airline's operations. The simulation model developed can identify the number of delays as well as the total time of delays that may occur throughout the system due to shortage of maintenance workforce.

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Development of an Aviation Weather Database Highlighting Weather Encounters

    PI Massoud Bazargan

    The project team, which includes the FAA's Civil Aerospace Medical Institute, Clemson University, and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, interviewed 26 General Aviation (GA) pilots over a 25-month period.

    The hope is that a list of items and/or data points that investigators can use to gain a better understanding of what happened within a particular weather incident/accident can be generated.

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

1-10 of 22 results