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Rethinking the Human-Autonomy Team Architecture

Amy R. Pritchett
Professor and Head of the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Pennsylvania State University

As autonomous transportation technologies have advanced, transportation systems have evolved into human-autonomy teaming architectures that have machines doing things, and humans supervising. Is this the right architecture for human-autonomy teams in safety-critical transportation? 

In this talk, Amy Pritchett, professor and head of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Pennsylvania State University, mused about other architectures for how humans and autonomous systems can interact.

Pritchett’s talk is part of Volpe’s latest speaker series, The Ongoing Transformation of the Global Transportation System, which explores challenges and opportunities affecting the advancement of transportation systems.

About the Speaker

Headshot of Pennsylvania State University's Amy PritchettAmy R. Pritchett is a professor and head of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Pennsylvania State University, effective August 15, 2017.

Previously, Dr. Pritchett was on the faculty of the Schools of Aerospace Engineering and of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology from 1997 to 2017, and she also served via the Intergovernmental Personnel Act as Director of NASA’s Aviation Safety Program in 2008 and 2009. Her research focuses on the intersection of technology, expert human performance and aerospace operations, with a particular focus on designing to support safety. 

Pritchett is currently editor-in-chief of the Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making. She has received the AIAA Lawrence Sperry Award, the RTCA William Jackson Award and, as a member of the Executive Committee of the Commercial Aviation Safety Team, the 2008 Collier Trophy. She earned her ScD, SM, and SB in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She chaired the National Research Council Committee examining Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) air traffic controller staffing levels and implications for the FAA Budget, and for implementation of the Next Generation Air Transportation System, and recently served as a member on other NRC committees reviewing the FAA Certification Research Plan and NASA’s astronaut corps.

News and Video

Read the news story and view the video from this event.