Objectives
The strategic goals of the division are:
(i) the creation of a newly developed base of understanding concerning the elements involved primarily in human-machine system operation and interaction
"To advance our fundamental understanding of how people process information, make decisions and collaborate with human and machine systems."
(ii) the generation of solutions to aviation safety problems, and improvement in performance.
"To enhance aviation safety and performance by designing human-centered automation and interfaces, decision support tools, training, and team and organizational practices. "
(iii) to increase capabilities to further human presence in space.
"To extend human capabilities in space by advancing our knowledge of human performance during space missions and developing tools, technologies and countermeasures for safe and effective space operations."
A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or process, whereas the simulation represents the evolution of the model over time. Often, computers are used to execute the simulation.
The Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) laboratory. That agency was dissolved and its assets and personnel transferred to the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on October 1, 1958. NASA Ames is named in honor of Joseph Sweetman Ames, a physicist and one of the founding members of NACA. At last estimate NASA Ames had over US$3 billion in capital equipment, 2,300 research personnel and a US$860 million annual budget.
A flight simulator is a device that artificially re-creates aircraft flight and the environment in which it flies, for pilot training, design, or other purposes. It includes replicating the equations that govern how aircraft fly, how they react to applications of flight controls, the effects of other aircraft systems, and how the aircraft reacts to external factors such as air density, turbulence, wind shear, cloud, precipitation, etc. Flight simulation is used for a variety of reasons, including flight training, the design and development of the aircraft itself, and research into aircraft characteristics and control handling qualities.
The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight, where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted. It was renamed in honor of the late US president and Texas native, Lyndon B. Johnson, by an act of the United States Senate on February 19, 1973.
Canadarm or Canadarm1 is a series of robotic arms that were used on the Space Shuttle orbiters to deploy, manoeuvre, and capture payloads. After the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, the Canadarm was always paired with the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS), which was used to inspect the exterior of the shuttle for damage to the thermal protection system.
Mixed reality (MR) is a term used to describe the merging of a real-world environment and a computer-generated one. Physical and virtual objects may co-exist in mixed reality environments and interact in real time.
Cognitive ergonomics is a scientific discipline that studies, evaluates, and designs tasks, jobs, products, environments and systems and how they interact with humans and their cognitive abilities. It is defined by the International Ergonomics Association as "concerned with mental processes, such as perception, memory, reasoning, and motor response, as they affect interactions among humans and other elements of a system. Cognitive ergonomics is responsible for how work is done in the mind, meaning, the quality of work is dependent on the persons understanding of situations. Situations could include the goals, means, and constraints of work. The relevant topics include mental workload, decision-making, skilled performance, human-computer interaction, human reliability, work stress and training as these may relate to human-system design." Cognitive ergonomics studies cognition in work and operational settings, in order to optimize human well-being and system performance. It is a subset of the larger field of human factors and ergonomics.
Neuroergonomics is the application of neuroscience to ergonomics. Traditional ergonomic studies rely predominantly on psychological explanations to address human factors issues such as: work performance, operational safety, and workplace-related risks. Neuroergonomics, in contrast, addresses the biological substrates of ergonomic concerns, with an emphasis on the role of the human nervous system.
Timothy "TJ" Creamer is a NASA flight director, retired astronaut and a colonel in the United States Army. Creamer was born in Fort Huachuca, Arizona, but considers Upper Marlboro, Maryland, to be his hometown. He is married to the former Margaret E. Hammer. They have two children.
The Aeronautical Systems Center (ASC) is an inactivated Air Force product center that designed, developed and delivered weapon systems and capabilities for U.S. Air Force, other U.S. military, allied and coalition-partner warfighters. ASC managed 420 Air Force, joint and international aircraft acquisition programs and related projects; executed an annual budget of $19 billion and employed a workforce of more than 11,000 people located at Wright-Patterson Air Force base and 38 other locations worldwide. ASC's portfolio included capabilities in fighter/attack, long-range strike, reconnaissance, mobility, agile combat support, special operations forces, training, unmanned aircraft systems, human systems integration and installation support. ASC was deactivated during a July 20, 2012 ceremony held at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
Aeronautical Development Establishment is a laboratory of India's Defence Research and Development Organisation. Located in Bangalore, its primary function is research and development in the field of military aviation.
Dylan Schmorrow is an American scientist and retired United States Defense Official. He is currently the chief scientist at Soar Technology, Inc.. He is a retired US Navy captain, and served as the deputy director of the Human Performance, Training, and BioSystems Research Directorate at the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, Research & Engineering at Office of the Secretary of Defense. He was also specialty leader of the Aerospace Experimental Psychologist community and an acquisition professional in the Naval Acquisition Corps.
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI) is the medical certification, education, research, and occupational medicine wing of the Office of Aerospace Medicine (AAM) under the auspices of the Federal Aviation Administration Office of Aviation Safety. The Institute's primary goal is to enhance aviation safety.
Astronaut training describes the complex process of preparing astronauts in regions around the world for their space missions before, during and after the flight, which includes medical tests, physical training, extra-vehicular activity (EVA) training, procedure training, rehabilitation process, as well as training on experiments they will accomplish during their stay in space.
Guy André Boy is a French and American scientist and engineer, Fellow of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), the Air and Space Academy and the International Academy of Astronautics. He is FlexTech chair holder and university professor at CentraleSupélec and ESTIA Institute of Technology. He was university professor and dean (2015–2017) at Florida Institute of Technology (FIT), where he created the Human-Centered Design Institute in 2010. He was senior research scientist at Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC). He was Chief Scientist for Human-Centered Design at NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) from 2010 to 2016. He is known for his work on intelligent assistance, cognitive function analysis, human-centered design (HCD), orchestration of life-critical systems, tangible interactive systems and human systems integration.
Pilot decision making, also known as aeronautical decision making (ADM), is a process that aviators perform to effectively handle troublesome situations that are encountered. Pilot decision-making is applied in almost every stage of the flight as it considers weather, air spaces, airport conditions, ETA and so forth. During the flight, employers pressure pilots regarding time and fuel restrictions since a pilots’ performance directly affects the company’s revenue and brand image. This pressure often hinders a pilot's decision-making process leading to dangerous situations as 50% to 90% of aviation accidents are the result of pilot error.
The SHELL model is a conceptual model of human factors that clarifies the scope of aviation human factors and assists in understanding the human factor relationships between aviation system resources/environment and the human component in the aviation system.
Human Systems Integration (HSI) is an interdisciplinary managerial and technical approach to developing and sustaining systems which focuses on the interfaces between humans and modern technical systems. The objective of HSI is to provide equal weight to human, hardware, and software elements of system design throughout systems engineering and lifecycle logistics management activities across the lifecycle of a system. The end goal of HSI is to optimize total system performance and minimize total ownership costs. The field of HSI integrates work from multiple human centered domains of study include training, manpower, personnel, human factors engineering, safety, occupational health, survivability and habitability.
The Human Engineering Laboratory (HEL) was a research institution under the U.S. Army Materiel Command that specialized in human performance research, human factors engineering, robotics, and human-in-the-loop technology. Located at Aberdeen Proving Ground, HEL acted as the Army’s lead laboratory for human factors and ergonomics research from 1951 to 1992, during which researchers investigated methods to maximize combat effectiveness, improve weapons and equipment designs, and reduce operation costs and errors. HEL was one of the seven Army laboratories that merged together to form the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in 1992.
David D. Woods is an American safety systems researcher who studies human coordination and automation issues in a wide range safety-critical fields such as nuclear power, aviation, space operations, critical care medicine, and software services. He is one of the founding researchers of the fields of cognitive systems engineering and resilience engineering.
