Volpe Center Highlights
Safety
Director's Notes |
Focus |
Safety |
Mobility and Economic Growth
Human and Natural Environment |
Organizational Excellence |
Homeland Security
Awards |
Papers and Presentations
Supporting Fire Life Safety (FAA)
 A Volpe team conducted evaluations of code compliance at four air traffic control towers including this tower in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. (Photo courtesy of Mr. Mark Gentile) |
The Volpe Center is providing fire protection engineering expertise to the Fire Life Safety Program of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Headquarters, Western Pacific, Eastern, New England, and Southern Regions. This effort is part of the Center's support of FAA's Environmental, Energy, and Safety Division. The prime objective of the Fire Life Safety Program is to ensure that all Air Traffic Control Towers owned or operated by the FAA are in compliance with federal codes established cooperatively by the FAA, Office of the Secretary of Transportation, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The Center provides engineering, design, and field testing and construction support in the areas of fire-detection and alarm systems, structural fire protection, automatic sprinklers, emergency egress, and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The Volpe team, led by Mr. Steve Losier of the Environmental Engineering Division and Mr. Mark Gentile of the Technology Applications and Deployment Division and supported by Hughes Associates, Inc. (a Volpe contractor), has conducted code-compliance evaluations at air traffic control towers in Worcester, Massachusetts; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; and Tucson, Arizona. In September 2002, the team submitted final compliance evaluation reports to FAA. The Volpe Center will continue to provide engineering, design, and field support services to various FAA Regions in support of the Fire Life Safety Program.
Fostering International Information Exchange
An important function of the Volpe Center is enabling collaboration among members of the transportation community. |
With the continued growth of information technology, computer applications, system complexity, and performance demands in the aerospace arena, human-computer interaction has become a key factor in the development of aerospace systems. The bi-annual international conference on Engineering Human-Computer Interaction in Aeronautics (HCI-Aero) provides an international forum for the exchange of current research and issues in the development and operation of human-computer systems across the aeronautics domain, including flight operations, maintenance, unmanned aerial vehicles, and air traffic controls. From October 23 through 25, 2002, the Volpe Center and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology co-hosted HCI-Aero 2002 at the Volpe Center. The HCI-Aero Conferences of the European Institute of Cognitive Sciences originated in Toulouse, France, and have been held bi-annually since 1986, alternating between Europe and North America since 1998.
Volpe participants included Center Director Richard R. John; Dr. Donald Sussman, Chief of the Operator Performance and Safety Analysis Division; and Dr. Divya C. Chandra of the Operator Performance and Safety Analysis Division. Dr. Sussman served as co-chair of a paper session on training, and Dr. Chandra presented "Human Factors Evaluation of Electronic Flight Bags" at a paper session on procedures and documents.