This year, at the Aspire25 Conference in Chicago, our students got recognized for all their hard work organizing student events around human factors all year round!

As a part of NASA SBIR Phase II, CSEL is working with Mosaic ATM to enable the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) system. The team uses model-based systems engineering techniques and model-based simulations to analyze and create a contingency planning toolkit for AAM. CSEL Alum and Mosaic ATM’s R&D Business Unit Manager Alicia Fernandes recently presented part of this work at AIAA Scitech titled, “Use of Model Based System Engineering to Drive UAM Contingency Management Procedure Design.” The abstract for the paper is given below and the full paper can be found online at this link. If you want to look at previous publications from this project please visit this page.

CSEL students presented their work at the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society annual meeting ASPIRE’24 in Phoenix, AZ.

Sal(PhD ISE ’28) presented a lecture on functional modeling using Network Mathematics to better understand how coordination demands are created and managed in human-machine teams. This model will be used to better inform how human-machine teams are designed for use in unstructured domains such as disaster response robotics, which will allow these teams to have a greater impact when deployed. This model takes coordination demands into explicit considerations when evaluating these teaming configurations, which is not typically modeled in traditional approaches. By explicitly modeling human coordination needs with robots, a better understanding of how these systems work is realized. The full conference paper can be found here.

Abhi(PhD ISE ’24) demonstrated the computational modeling and simulation approach that can help designers and engineers better envision the system. The demonstration provided details on how to apply the technique and some insights into the specifics of the technique. This technique works on the principle that understanding emergence caused by the interactions of work, work environment, and agents helps better understand the feasibility and robustness of the system. By explicitly modeling work and its relation to work dynamics, the method can reveal underlying interactions. The full conference paper can be found here.

CSEL students recently had the opportunity to present their year long student led project at the Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC) in San Diego, California. Izzy Furl (BSc CSE ’24) and Abhinay Paladugu (PhD ISE ’24) gave a podium presentation detailing the results of a Human in the Loop simulated experiment. The project was awarded in the spring of 2023 after the team proposed their ideas for NASA’s University Student Research Challenge. Other team members include Connor Kannally (PhD ISE ’27) and undergraduate alumni Luke McSherry (BSc ISE ’24), who currently works at NASA Johnson Space Center as an Exploration Engineer.

Over the last year, the team developed a Information Visualization plugin for BlueSky, an open-source air traffic simulator. Along with software development, the team used the software to collect empirical evidence showing the challenge of monitoring multiple self-flying aircrafts. Their presentation detailed how their software can be used to support next generation aviation operations, specifically for enabling safe and efficient human machine teaming. The full conference paper can be found here and will soon be published on sage.

To view the pdf of the podium presentation please click here

PhD student Abigail Post was awarded the HFES CEDM track best paper of the year for her recently presented poster on the What’s Next diagram which is an event-based visualization which aims to help designers and analysts determine if there is enough support in the design of an automated system so that the human counterpart can successfully coordinate with the system.

It focuses on the ability to project ahead accurately given the cues available in the design over time and look back to that design to make sense of what has happened. This diagram can be used for future systems looking at where additional support for the human needs to be designed into the system and for analysis of previous events to see why the design did not support the human and how the design needs to be improved.

The full paper can be accessed using the following link to Sage Publications.

Earlier this year, Ph.D. Students Abhinay Paladugu (’24) and Connor Kannally (’27) were awarded 80k for their proposal titled “Urban Air Mobility Contingency Diagnosis Toolkit.” A more detailed store can be found on the ISE department news feed.

With the help of Computer Science and Engineering undergraduate students Izzy Furl (’24) and Luke McSherry(’24), the team is building out information visualization requirements for future Advanced Air Mobility command and control coordinators. The visualizations will be tested in a Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) simulation to determine information design’s role in affecting future operators’ cognitive work.

Abhinay Paladugu, a Ph.D. student and researcher in CSEL, presented on June 1st at the International Symposium on Aviation Psychology (ISAP) held in Rochester, NY. Abhinay’s paper, co-authored by Dr. Martijn IJtsma, Alicia Fernandez, Stuart Wilson, Thomas Davis, and Jarrod Lichty, is titled “Evaluating Envisioned Air Mobility Architectures using Computational Simulations of Work”. The work deals with how we can use more formative modeling techniques along with simulation to look at some of the emergent system properties. This will help us better evaluate the dynamics associated with the system.

Continue reading Ph.D. Student Abhinay Paladugu Finalist for Best Student Paper Award →

99P Labs, backed by both Honda and The Ohio State University, is collaborating with CSEL to design novel solutions for the optimal integration of technology and human users in a mobility context. The project will develop several alternative human-AI teaming capabilities for an envisioned mobility application. These alternatives will be evaluated in a driver-in-the-loop experiment to analyze what AI capabilities best support interaction and coordination with human users.

Continue reading Enabling Smart Mobility: CSEL and 99P Labs Collaboration to Develop Human-AI Partnerships →

The Fall 2022 BuckISE newsletter featured five articles about the work conducted by current and former members of CSEL:

• Dr. Mike Rayo (Faculty) – ‘Engineering, Nursing Team Up to Transform Medical Training Through XR, AI, ML’
• Alex Morison (Alumni) – ‘Morison Finds Dream Work in Developing ‘Cool Stuff”
• David Woods (Faculty) – ‘Woods Delivers Presentation for Adobe Tech Summit 2022’ and ‘Two ISE Professors Named Titans of Human Factors’
• Dr. Martijn IJtsma (Faculty) – ‘Future of Air Mobility Latest NASA-ISE Collaboration’
• Jacob Keller (Master’s Student) – ‘ISE Grad Student Helps Support NASA’s Artemis Lunar Venture’