About Us

U.S. DOT Volpe Center’s Aviation Safety Management Systems Division provides systems engineering and analysis, operations research, and associated IT expertise to enhance aviation operational safety. We provide technical and risk analysis expertise on aviation and aerospace safety issues.

Our team of IT specialists, engineers, computer scientists, and operations research analysts designs and develops aviation safety business processes, decision tools, and knowledge management systems. A large portion of our work is focused on designing, developing, and maintaining information systems used by FAA aviation safety inspectors.

Our Capabilities

Safety and Security Assessments

• Develop safety and surveillance information management systems
• Leverage the principles of safety management systems (SMS) in all our work: taking an organizational view of safety
• Conduct safety studies, develop prototypes, and support rulemaking to improve the safety of aviation systems
• Evaluate the continued effectiveness of implemented risk control strategies, and support identification of new hazards

Human Factors Research and Design

• Provide human factors safety analysis and decision support to ensure management commitment to safety improvement
• Assist in the effective use of resources, identification of trends, and risk management
• Analyze and manage safety standards, policies, and directives
• Identify alternatives, impacts, and risks of existing business processes, standards, and policies with a goal to enhance safety
• Ensure safety promotion is in place, such as training and communication, to create a positive safety culture at all levels of the workforce

Systems and Infrastructure Modernization and Optimization

• Integrate and align technology to support aviation safety
• Deploy systems that align business and organizational goals with systems safety
• Address safety risk from a management systems standpoint to avoid catastrophic results
• Incorporate business process re-engineering, requirements definitions, lifecycle cost analysis, and benefits analysis

Applied Data Science

• Integrate data visualization with data exploration and data analysis, coupled with deep expertise in aviation safety management
• Apply SMS approach to statistical modeling, predictive analytics, and risk models
• Leverage data-driven decision-support tools to help ensure availability of enterprise data

Meet Our Team

View selected staff biographies.

Anne Gates

Chief

Anne Gates is the chief of Aviation Safety Management Systems at the U.S. DOT Volpe Center. She has been a general engineer at the U.S. DOT Volpe Center since 2010, with a focus in system engineering, safety analysis, analysis of new technologies, safety risk management, aviation surveillance data mining, and the development of models and methods. Gates currently serves as project manager for the U.S. DOT Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology (OST-R) Complementary Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (CPNT) project helping U.S. DOT drive CPNT adoption across the nation’s transportation system and within other critical infrastructure sectors.

She previously served as federal project lead for the FAA Surveillance and Broadcast Services (SBS) Advanced Surveillance Enhanced Procedural Separation (ASEPS) project currently focused on industry engagement on the satellite-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) technologies, to assess market capabilities and determine if approaches are viable for future investment considerations.

Before her division chief role, Gates served in various acting leadership positions across the U.S. DOT Volpe Center, including serving as acting chief for the Systems Safety and Engineering division as well as the Aviation Systems Engineering division. She has led and participated in various organizational initiatives across the U.S. DOT Volpe Center, such as the Mentoring Program. Before studying for her engineering degree and joining the U.S. DOT Volpe Center as a Pathways intern, Gates taught high school mathematics for five years.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from St. Anselm College (Manchester, NH), a master’s degree in mathematics from the University of New Hampshire (Durham, NH), and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Boston University (Boston, MA).