The Air Traffic Control/Technical Operations (ATC/TO) Human Factors Program is managed by Dino Piccione. The program supports FAA strategic goals for increased safety, greater capacity, and organizational excellence by developing research products and promoting the use of those products to meet the future demands of the aviation system. The program addresses Operational Improvements in the NAS Enterprise Architecture as part of the NextGen Implementation Plan. This research will examine the roles of controllers and maintainers at increased capacity levels and how those roles are best supported by allocation of functions between human operators and automation. The ATC/TO program generates requirements for human interface characteristics of the next generation of air traffic workstations. It is enhancing our understanding of the role that ATC supervisors play in mitigating operational errors and runway incursions. The program is also providing material to reduce human error incidents associated with the performance of controllers, system maintainers, and others who fill important safety roles. In addition, researchers are determining effective methods to present weather information to air traffic specialists for severe weather avoidance and accident prevention, developing methods to select the next generation of air traffic service providers so that the applicant screening process is valid, reliable, and fair, and improving human-system integration in a manner that allows controllers to manage an increased number of aircraft in a sector while reducing task loading.

The research program works to improve system safety by developing: (1) methods to identify new potential human error problems as the roles and responsibilities of air traffic service providers change as a result of increasing levels of automation; (2) organizational changes to transform the Technical Operations ATO safety culture; (3) effective methods to present weather information to air traffic specialists for accident prevention through severe weather avoidance. Human factors researchers are improving: (1) supervisory best practices so that first-line supervisors can implement effective methods that suppress the rate of operational errors and reduce the severity of errors that do occur; and, (2) methods to select the next generation of air traffic service providers.

The ATC/TO program works to improve the ATC contribution to system capacity by developing: (1) integrated workstations that allow the air traffic service provider to meet the increased demand for services with a reduced staffing level; (2) methods to assess the value of proposed changes to workstations to determine if human-in-the-loop performance is enhanced to the required level; (3) advanced workstation concepts for staffed virtual towers (introduced by the NextGen Concept of Operations) as a method to use automation to increase services, increase capacity, and decrease the cost of air traffic services. Research results are used to improve: (1) human-system workstation integration in a manner that allows air traffic service providers and pilots to effectively manage traffic loads to efficiently move air traffic in the National Airspace System (NAS); (2) changes in roles and responsibilities between air traffic service providers and pilots as technology evolves to meet future demands.

The Air Traffic Control/Technical Operations Human Factors Research Program provides leadership and products to motivate and inform the evolution of the NAS to assure that the human component of the system will reliably perform to meet the needs of the flying public. Results include: (1) air traffic workstations and concepts that increase productivity of the workforce by identifying key workload factors that must be mitigated to enable the humans in the system to manage the traffic flow in the future NAS; (2) evaluations of candidate technologies that purport to provide a specified human-in-the-loop performance level or safety benefit when used by the ATO workforce; (3) transformation of the ATO safety culture through research in the Technical Operations community to identify effective interventions that are needed to move the ATO toward a Just Culture; (4) personnel selection criteria to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the screening process for future air traffic service providers.

The ATC/ATO Human Factors research program receives requirements from its internal FAA sponsoring organizations: Advanced Air Traffic Systems Requirements Group, Individual and Team Performance Requirements Group, Technical Operations Requirements Group, and the Personnel Selection and Training Requirements Group. R&D partnerships have been established with NASA, EUROCONTROL, and ICAO.

Cooperative research grants are in place with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), St. Louis University, and Texas Tech University.