Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

Monday, April 19, 2004 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium

Charles Billings

"Aviation Automation"

ABSTRACT -- Dr. Billings will discuss human and machine roles in complex real-time systems in aerospace and other domains. He will suggest fundamental principles that should govern the design, management and operation of such systems and will suggest how humans can remain effectively in command of such systems, especially under off-nominal conditions. He will illustrate his talk with examples of systems that are successful, and some that have been less effective. He believes that critical factors determining the success or failure of human-machine systems include their complexity, coupling, autonomy, and opacity. The issues underlying these characteristics will be discussed.

SPEAKER -- Charles Billings is a physician. Since 1960, he has been a faculty member at The Ohio State University, where he directed the post-doctoral training program in aerospace medicine from 1960 to 1973. In 1973, he joined the staff of the NASA-Ames Research Center, where he held research and management positions until retiring in 1992 as Chief Scientist at Ames. At NASA, he was involved in major aviation safety research programs including the Aviation Safety/Automation program and the Crew Resource Management program. After retirement, Dr. Billings returned to Ohio State, where he is a research scientist in the Cognitive Systems Engineering Laboratory. His publications include a book, Aviation Automation: The Search for a Human-Centered Approach (1996), and over 125 research papers in aviation medicine, human factors and aerospace safety.