CURRENT DIP ACTIVITIES

DIP Team Presented to the New NATCA Rep and Houston District Manager in Houston Texas

May 14, 2024

The Digital Information Platform (DIP) team conducted a demonstration of the Sustainable Flight National Partnership Operations (SFNP-Ops) predeparture rerouting capability for the new National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) Representative and the district manager from Houston. The group discussed the proposed capability and possible use cases under the predeparture rerouting demonstration in Houston in FY25. Both the NATCA Representative and the district manager planned to discuss this further with Houston Facilities representatives as the NASA team continues with preparation for the operational demonstration.

Tabletop Exercises Conducted with United Airlines

May 20, 2024

The DIP demo team conducted a tabletop exercise with United Airlines’ team at their Arlington Heights Network Operation Center as part of the preparation for the demonstration of the SFNP-Ops predeparture rerouting capability in the Houston airspace in 2025. The team walked through how the envisioned predeparture rerouting capability could be used in various operational scenarios with the United Airlines leaders and members of the network operation, flight planning, data analysis and software departments. The group had a fruitful discussion about desired requirements and use cases. Metrics and potential reroute benefits were also discussed. The agreed-upon capability will further integrate data from FAA to support departure reroutes with existing FAA equipment. The operational evaluation of NASA and FAA’s capability will help to inform how flight operators and FAA can further make data-driven decision to support reroutes in the future, as well as help to inform future requirements for the next generation of FAA flow management system.

DIP Team Receives 2023 NASA Honor Awards

May 22, 2024

The DIP Planning and Test Team was selected to receive the prestigious NASA Group Achievement Award, in recognition for their outstanding accomplishments in planning, developing, and field-testing air traffic management technologies. At the ceremony, representing the team, Gilbert Wu, the former DIP subproject manager, received the award from Eugene Tu, the Ames Center Director, and David Korsmeyer, the Ames Deputy Center Director.

In addition to the Group Achievement Award, three of the DIP team members received the prestigious Exceptional Achievement Medal. Dr. Jeremy Coupe received the medal for outstanding contributions to pioneering real-time application of machine learning to air traffic management used in real-time decision making. Pallavi Hegde was awarded the medal for her outstanding contributions towards enabling a digital information ecosystem to support the transformation and scaling of the National Airspace System. Furthermore, Shawn Engelland was honored with the Exceptional Service Medal for his sustained leadership, significant achievements with innovative technologies and mentoring to enable NASA to deliver world class Air Traffic Management research.

DIP Meets with FAA AES Team

June 12–13, 2024

DIP conducted a 2-day Technology Interchange Meeting (TIM) with the FAA’s Automation Evolution Strategy (AES) team at the FAA headquarters in Washington, DC. The meeting aimed to share information about DIP technologies such as cloud-based platform architecture, predeparture rerouting service, other NASA-developed machine learning services, Fuser Integrated Data Feed, and machine learning operations pipeline, while also learning about FAA’s Automation Evolution Strategy (AES) and Flow Management Data Services (FMDS) plans. The team engaged in a two-way discussion about several topics of interest such as platform interoperability, cloud migration, data trust and quality etc. and proposed a plan to continue the engagement with AES team.

DIP Showcased Sustainable Flight National Partnership – Operations Research to NAC Aeronautics Committee 

June 25-26, 2024

The NASA Advisory Council (NAC) Aeronautics Committee traveled to Dallas, TX on June 25th and 26th to observe Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP) research in the field. The NAC advises the NASA Administrator on strategic plans, programs and policies pertinent to aeronautics research. Committee members and Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate leaders began their observations at NASA’s North Texas Research Station (NTX) on the premises of the FAA’s Fort Worth Air Route Traffic Control Center. At NTX, Dr. Jeremy Coupe introduced the group to the predeparture rerouting service which the DIP team developed and is demonstrating as part of NASA’s SFNP-Ops effort. The group then traveled to the nearby American Airlines Integrated operations Center where they observed predeparture rerouting in use and discussed sustainable aviation benefits of the technology with American Airlines partners. On June 26th, AOSP leadership presented additional details on the service and the SFNP Operations demonstration series during their briefing at the NAC Aeronautics Committee public meeting.

DIP CDDR Featured in NASA Aeronautics News Article

July 12, 2024

On July 12, NASA Aeronautics News website featured DIP and the predeparture rerouting services in the article titled “NASA Cloud-Based Platform Could Help Streamline, Improve Air Traffic,” https://www.nasa.gov/aeronautics/digital-information-platform-could-help-improve-air-traffic/. The article describes how DIP and the predeparture rerouting tool benefit not only the aviation industry, including the FAA, commercial airlines, and flight operators, but also the flying public, based on an interview with Dr. Swati Saxena, the DIP subproject manager, and the predeparture rerouting demonstration results in the Dallas airspace.

DIP at the EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin

July 22, 2024

NASA’s DIP was featured in the NASA Exhibit at EAA AirVenture 2024. Team member Daniel Mulfinger showcased the successful results from DIP’s predeparture rerouting tool, which is presently in use operationally by American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and other carriers at Dallas area airports. The predeparture rerouting tool utilizes machine learning to identify flights suitable for rerouting around weather-related issues and heavy air traffic and was met with positive feedback from those in attendance.

DIP and American Airlines Researchers Present Keynote Speeches at FAA

July 30, 2024

Dr. Jeremy Coupe from ATM-X DIP and Dr. Tim Niznik, Director of Analytics at American Airlines, were co-keynote speakers at the FAA Air Traffic Organization (ATO) Data Evolution Leadership Team (DELT) meeting. The DELT within the FAA ATO is a group of directors who facilitate data sharing and collaborate on data topics. The presentation was a kick-off for the “Let’s Connect Our Data Speaker Series” which will run between the end of July and September. The ATM-X DIP team presented on the topic “Use of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) deployed in a cloud environment for real-time decision support systems.” The presentation covered the DIP work on digital transformation of the Airport Surface Model from a monolithic decision support tool to a service-oriented architecture, leveraging machine learning, and deployed in a cloud environment. The audience showed a strong interest in DIP’s use of Dr. Tim Niznik of American Airlines (left on the stage) and Dr. Jeremy Coupe of NASA DIP (right, seated, on the stage) presenting co-keynote speeches to the FAA ATO DELT. machine learning applied to modeling unimpeded trajectories which can replace physics-based methods that require detailed adaptation and the use of Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) which enable scalable, repeatable, and maintainable development of Machine Learning models in a production environment.

DIP Participation in the 2024 AIAA Aviation Forum

July 29–Aug 2, 2024

DIP participated in this year’s AIAA AVIATION Forum held in Las Vegas, NV. DIP sub-project manager Swati Saxena participated in NASA’s SFNP Panel and represented the airspace operations work being done by NASA to contribute to SFNP mission. Between 200 to 300 people attended the panel making it one of the largest panels in this year’s AIAA forum. Other panelists included Rich Wahls (NASA SFNP Mission Director) and project managers of Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration (EPFD), Hybrid Thermally Efficient Core (HyTEC), Hi-Rate Composite Aircraft Manufacturing (HiCAM) , Sustainable Flight Demonstrator (SFD) and Model Based Systems Analysis and Engineering (MBSA&E) programs. The audience engaged in a lively Q&A session with the panelists.

Software Development v1.9.0

DIP Releases Software V1.9.0 

July 15, 2024

The following modifications were implemented:

• Integration and display of Flight Operators’ Trajectory Options Set (TOS) data from System Wide
• Information Management (SWIM)
• Validation of SWIM TOS Routes
• Addition of new functionality to manage TOS Routes
• Integration of initial routes prior to flight plans
• Increase of predictive engine to 3 hours prior to Estimated Take Off Time
• Added features and data to the Airspace Status Map and Timeline User Interfaces
• Added provider metrics to support Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) services

EVENTS

Upcoming: DIP Industry Day!

DIP Industry Day will be held at NASA Ames Research Center March 5th and 6th of 2025. This is an event for all industry and agency stakeholders to come together and discuss the opportunities for collaboration and partnerships and learn more about DIP ecosystem and SFNP Ops demos from DIP leadership and team. Registration details will be announced soon.

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