CONTESTS

PROBLEMS

ARTICLES

REGISTER

ABOUT

CONTACT
Powered by Comap
 

Problem Title: Air traffic Control

     
  Year: 2000      
  Student Level: Undergraduate      
  Source: MCM      
  Commentary: Yes (2)      
  Student Papers: Yes (4)      
     
  Problem  
 

Dedicated to the memory of Dr. Robert Machol, former chief scientist of the Federal Aviation Agency

To improve safety and reduce air traffic controller workload, the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) is considering adding software to the air traffic control system that would automatically detect potential aircraft flight path conflicts and alert the controller. To that end, an analyst at the FAA has posed the following problems.

Requirement A: Given two airplanes flying in space, when should the air traffic controller consider the objects to be too close and to require intervention?

Requirement B: An airspace sector is the section of three-dimensional airspace that one air traffic controller controls. Given any airspace sector, how do we measure how complex it is from an air traffic workload perspective? To what extent is complexity determined by the number of aircraft simultaneously passing through that sector (1) at any one instant? (2) during any given interval of time? (3) during a particular time of day? How does the number of potential conflicts arising during those periods affect complexity?

Does the presence of additional software tools to automatically predict conflicts and alert the controller reduce or add to this complexity?

In addition to the guidelines for your report, write a summary (no more than two pages) that the FAA analyst can present to Jane Garvey, the FAA Administrator, to defend your conclusions.

 
         
  Commentary      
 

Judge's Commentary: The Outstanding Air Traffic Control Papers

Patrick J. Driscoll
Department of Mathematical Sciences
U.S. Military Academy

 
         
 

Practitioner's Commentary: The Outstanding Air Traffic Control Papers

Jack Clemons
Senior Vice President
Lockheed Martin Air Traffic Management

     
         
  Student Papers      
 

Air Traffic Control

Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

 
         
 

The Safe Distance Between Airplanes and the Complexity of an Airspace Sector

Governor's School, Richmond, VA, USA

 
         
 

The Iron Laws of Air Traffic Control

U.S. Military Academy, West Point, NY, USA

 
         
 

You Make the Call: Feasibility of Computerized Aircraft Control

University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA