Summary
The Center for Air Transportation Systems Research at George Mason University was chartered in 2003.
The CATSR mission is to foster excellence in education and research in Air Transportation System Engineering. Contributions to the field include:
- transportation network-of-networks simulation, optimization, and analysis
- complex adaptive systems simulation and analysis
- NAS, airport and airspace simulation and performance analysis
- rare-event safety analysis for systems and devices
- aviation environment (noise and emissions)
- strategic planning and forecasting/industrial sector economics
- auctions and other allocation schemes
- portfolio analysis/costs-benefits analysis
- flightdeck design and human factors
Our outstanding students are successful leaders in industry, government and academia. Where are they now?
CATSR Director is Lance Sherry.
News
The air transportation industry is entering a period of disruptive innovation. New composite materials, powerful lighter-weight batteries, and AI are enabling new classes of air vehicle designs.
Hybrid Air Vehicles (Bedford, England) and Mason Systems Engineering students are leading the charge.
“Hybrid Air Vehicles have developed a next-generation blimp using the latest technology,” explains Habiba Salada Systems Engineering major. “The helium in the blimp creates buoyancy that provides the lift force for the aircraft. The use of helium, an inert gas, eliminates the risk of fire such as what happened with the Hindenburg which used hydrogen.”
Hybrid Air Vehicles sponsored a Systems Engineering Capstone team to develop a tool to assess the best seat and payload configuration for their vehicle for routes in the U.S. market.
“The tool models passenger demand and the prices passengers are willing to pay on a specific route, and then compares the revenue to the cost,” says Adam Abu-Jamous Systems Engineering Capstone team lead. “The profit for each route can be estimated for different levels of passenger demand and different vehicle seat and payload configurations.”
The revenue-cost model used by the student team was originally developed by PhD students and faculty in the Center for Air Transportation Systems Research (CATSR) at George Mason University.
“The Hybrid Air Vehicle is best suited to short trips of less than 250 miles such as Washington, D.C. to Baltimore, Maryland, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, or New York City,” says System Engineering student Yoseph Attai. “The vehicles do not need an airport. For example, it can lift off and land from water such as National Harbor here in D.C. This eliminates the hassle of an airport. It is much quieter than a jet, and does not emit CO2.”
System Engineering student Basma Elqadri designed and tested the tool user interface. “The revenue-cost model is quite complicated, so we had to get really creative with the visualization for the user interface. We designed and conducted usability testing on several alternatives before we got it right.”
“Most people take the user interfaces for granted,” says Habiba Salada. “We learned the hard way just how difficult and complicated human-machine interaction can be.”
“We are thrilled with the results of the project,” says Walt Kreitler, Hybrid Air Vehicles representative in the U.S. “Hybrid Air Vehicles have taken delivery of the tool the students developed and plan to use it in design and for business development.”
This System Engineering Capstone team won first place in – the Decision Analysis Track at the 2022 General Donald R. Keith Memorial Capstone Conference held in person at the United States Military Academy on April 28, 2022 “It was a great honor to compete at the conference against some of the best Systems Engineering programs in the country,” says Adam Abu-Jamous. “I would like to thank the SE Department faculty for their support and encouragement over the years.”
“Clearly, the System Engineering students graduating from the George Mason University program are well prepared to be an asset to the workforce,” says Systems Engineering and Operations Research Department Chair John Shortle. To learn more about System Engineering, robotics, and data analytics contact Systems Engineering Department Chair John Shortle (jshortle@gmu.edu).
About
Contact
Email: Center
Locations
Center for Air Transportation Systems Research
George Mason University
4400 University Drive
Nguyen Engineering Building
Room 4501
Phone: 703-993-1711
Web Links
- Website
- Research Advisory Board
- Get Your Pilots License here
- Join CATSR List-Serv
- Buy a copy of Terminal Chaos
- sUASs, Drones, and Autonomy
- Sports Analytics
- GMU GRANT AND CONTRACTS PROPOSAL FACT SHEET
People
Faculty
Dr. George Donohue
Founding Director
Professor SEOR Dept.
Dr. Lance Sherry
Director
Assoc. Professor, SEOR Dept.
Dr. C.H. Chen
Professor, SEOR Dept.
Dr. Rajesh Ganesan
Assistant Professor, SEOR Dept.
Dr. Karla Hoffman
Professor, SEOR Dept.
Dr. John Shortle
Assoc. Professor SEOR Dept.
Dr. Paulo Costa
Associate Professor SEOR Dept.
Dr. Terry Thompson
Research Affiliate
Dr. Jie Xu
Assistant Professor SEOR Dept.
Paula Lewis
IPA FAA – Assistant Administrator for Regions and Center Operations
Executive Board
Provides oversight of the strategic direction of the Center (includes research focus) and coordinates strategic relationships with sector
Chair: Terry Thompson (LMI)
Matt Blake
(Crown Consulting Inc.)Mark Klopfenstein
(AvMet Inc.)Brett Velicovitch
(Expert Drones Inc.)Mike Lewis
(Boeing – ATM)
Graduate Students & Researchers
Poornima Balakrishna
(Ph.D. 2009 – SaabSensis)
Akshay Belle
(Ph.D. 2013 – Booz Allen Hamilton)
Guillermo Calderon-Meza
(Ph.D. 2011 – Microsoft)
John Ferguson
(Ph.D 2011 – U.S. Army)
Babak Jeddi
(Ph.D. 2008)
Abdul Qadar Kara
(Ph.D 2011 – University Instructor in Middle East)
Houda Kourdali
(B.Sc. Student)
Sameer Kulkarni
(M.Sc. 2010 – Bosch, India)
Vivek Kumar
(Ph.D. 2011 – LMI)
Jennifer Lamont
(M.S. 2002 – Owner Systems Enginuity)
Melanie Larson
(M.Sc. 2008 – SAIC)
Loan Le
(Ph.D. 2006 – United Airlines)
Bengi Manley
(Ph.D. 2008 – SRA International)
Maricel Medina
(M.Sc. 2009, 2011)
Saba Neyshabouri
(Ph.D. Student)
Khurram Qureshi
(M.S. 2002 – Dubai Air Services/SERCO)
David Schaar
(Ph.D. – Strategy&/PWC.)
David Smith
(Ph. D. 2008 – Delta Airlines – Irregular Ops)
Jianfeng (Jeffrey) Wang
(Ph. D, 2010 – Google)
Danyi Wang
(Ph. D. 2007 – SRA International)
Zhenming Wang
(Ph.D. 2016 – JD.com)
Richard Xie
(Ph.D. 2005 – Agilex)
Ning Xu
(Ph. D. 2007 – American Airlines)
Bedis Yaacoubi
(M.Sc. 2008 – Anderson Consulting)
Arash Yousefi
(Ph.D. 2005 – Crown Consulting Inc.)
Victor Ye
Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China
Yimin Zhang
(Ph.D. 2014 – Jerry Thompson & Associates)
Recent Publications
Source: For more publications
2022
Alert! The Appearance of Moded Input Devices in the Modern Airliner Cockpit
Lance Sherry, Robert Mauro, Oleksandra Donnelly
IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems
17 February 2022
Design of a Local Area Integrated Drone, Aircraft, Vehicle, and Asses Management System
Charlie Wang, Lance Sherry,
In Proceedings IEEE ICNS Conference 2022
Dulles, Virginia, April 5-7, 2022
Method for Analysis of Drone Operations and Incursion Risk at Airports
Lance Sherry, Charlie Wang, Jomana Bashatah
Internal CATSR Report
Jan, 2022
Lessons Learned from Human Operator Intervention for AI Navigation and Flight Management Systems
Jomana Bashatah, Lance Sherry
In Proceedings IEEE ICNS Conference 2022
Dulles, Virginia, April 5-7, 2022
Aviation Sustainability Through Hyperspectral Image Analysis Methodology for Aircraft-Induced Clouds
Amy Rose, Lance Sherry
In Proceedings IEEE ICNS Conference 2022
Dulles, Virginia, April 5-7, 2022
2021
Video: Common Cause Failure Analysis for Aviation Safety Assessment Models
Sara Nikdel, Dr. Seungwon Noh, Dr. John Shortle
Digital Avionics Systems Conference, San Antonio, Texas
Octopber 3-7, 2021
Video: Concept of Operations: Airport Airspace Drone Incursion Protection Systems (A2DIPS)
Charles Wang
Draft CATSR/GMU Internal Report v090321
September 9, 2021
Video: How to Perform Analysis on Standard Operating Procedures
Video Prepared by Kaan Yaveroglu (Summer Intern at CATSR 2021)
CATSR/GMU Internal Report v090121
September 01, 2021
Based on research by Jomana Bashata
Operational Statistics for Rotary-Wing Aero Medical Transportation in the U.S. (2020)
Charles Wang, Lance Sherry
Journal American Helicopter Society
Submitted December, 2021
Operational Statistics of Fixed-Wing Aero Medical Transportation in the U.S. (2019-2020)
Charles Wang, Lance Sherry
Journal Article
Submitted December 2021
Air Transportation Pandemic Control – A Stochastic Nonlinear Complex Adaptive System
Charles Wang, Michael Strain, Dongwan Lim, Bryan Kurt Fabela, Dr. George Donohue
In Proceedings of the Annual General Donald R. Keith Memorial Conference. A Regional Conference of the Society for Industrial and Systems Engineering
West Point, New York, USA, April 29, 2021
Design of a Carbon-Free Urban Air Mobility System
Mohamed Elgendy, Tarek Jarrouje, Andrew Richardson, Asadullah Yousuf, Dr. George Donohue
In Proceedings of the Annual General Donald R. Keith Memorial Conference. A Regional Conference of the Society for Industrial and Systems Engineering
West Point, New York, USA, April 29, 2021
A Model-Based Approach for the Qualification of Standard Operating Procedures
Jomana Bashatah, Lance Sherry
In Proceedings IEEE ICNS Conference 2021
Dulles, Virginia, April 20-22, 2021
Design of Flight Guidance and Control Systems Using Explainable AI
Lance Sherry, Brett Berlin, James Baldo
In Proceedings IEEE ICNS Conference 2021
Dulles, Virginia, April 20-22, 2021
Design of an Aircraft Induced Cloud (AIC) Abatement Program (AAP) for Global Warming Mitigation
Lance Sherry, Amy Rose, Terry Thompson
In Proceedings IEEE ICNS Conference 2021
Dulles, Virginia, April 20-22, 2021
2020
Dissertation: Methodology for Collision Risk Assessment of Aircraft with Diverse Collision Avoidance Capabilities
Seungwon Noh (Ph.D.), Chair: Dr. John Shortle
Dissertation: System Engineering and Operartions Research, George Mason University
August, 2020
Dyanmic Event Tree to Assess Collsion Risk between Various Aircraft Types
Seugnwon Noh (Ph.D.), Dr. John Shortle
In Proceedings IEEE ICNS Conference 2020
Dulles, Virginia (online due to COVDID): September, 2020
Video: Autonomous Systems Design, Testing, and Deployment: Lessons Learned from the Deployment of an Autonomous Shuttle Bus
Lance Sherry, John Shortle, George Donohue, Brett Berlin
In Proceedings IEEE ICNS Conference 2020
Dulles, Virginia (online due to COVDID): September, 2020
Autonomous Systems Design, Testing, and Deployment: Lessons Learned from the Deployment of an Autonomous Shuttle Bus
Lance Sherry, John Shortle, George Donohue, Brett Berlin
In Proceedings IEEE ICNS Conference 2020
Dulles, Virginia (online due to COVDID): September, 2020
Trade-off Analysis of Options for Mitigating Climate Effects of Aircraft Induced Clouds
Oleksandra Snisraveska Donnelly, Lance Sherry
In Proceedings IEEE ICNS Conference 2020
Dulles, Virginia (online due to COVDID): September, 2020
Design of a Rapid, Reliable Urban Mobility System for the DC Region
Mary Taylor, Lauren Flenniken, Jason Nembhard, Anderson Barreal
In Proceedings IEEE ICNS Conference 2020
Dulles, Virginia (online due to COVDID): September, 2020
Analysis of Alternate Vertiport Designs
Megan Taylor, Asya Saldanli, Andy Park
In Proceedings IEEE ICNS Conference 2020
Dulles, Virginia (online due to COVDID): September, 2020
2019
Dissertation: Methodology for Capacity and Safety Analysis for a Flow Corridor with Dynamic Wake Separation
Azin Zare Noghabi (Ph.D.), Chair: Dr. John Shortle
Dissertation: System Engineering and Operartions Research, George Mason University
August, 2019
A Primer on Aircraft Induced Clouds and their Global Warming Mitigation Options
Dr. Dr. Lance Sherry (GMU), Dr. Terrence Thompson (The Climate Service)
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
September 16, 2020
Reducing Global Warming by Airline Contrail Avoidance: A Case Study of Annual Benefits for the Contiguous United States
Dr. Denis Avila (GMU), Dr. Lance Sherry (GMU), Dr. Terrence Thompson (The Climate Service)
Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Volume 2
September 2019
Anne Arundel County Transit System from US-50/301 to Washington DC
Philip Warner, Eric Toth, Eamon Bell, Samuel Adu Amankwah, Kenneth Fidler
SMDC-20: Andrew P. Sage Memorial Capstone Design Competition
Fairfax, Virginia April 29, 2019
Advisor: George Donohue
Northeast Corridor Mass Transportation System Analysis
Natalee Coffman, Yaovi Kodjo, Jacob Noble and Jaehoon Choi
SMDC-20: Andrew P. Sage Memorial Capstone Design Competition
Fairfax, Virginia April 29, 2019
Advisor: George Donohue
Northeast Corridor Mass Transportation System Analysis
Natalee Coffman, Yaovi Kodjo, Jacob Noble and Jaehoon Choi
Final Report CATSR-2019-008
Fairfax, Virginia April 26, 2020
Advisor: George Donohue
The Role of Moded Input Devices in Modern Airliner Accidents
Lance Sherry (GMU), Dr. Robert Mauro (Decision Research Inc.), Oleksandra Donnelly (GMU)
Center for Air Transportation Systems Research (CATSR) at George Mason University
Internal Report IR-0072019, June 2019
Dissertation: Methodology for Contrail Inventory Analysis
Denis Avila (Ph.D.), Chair: Dr. Lance Sherry
Dissertation: System Engineering and Operartions Research, George Mason University
May, 2019
Uncertainty Importance Analysis for Aviation Event Trees
John Shortle (Ph.D.), Seungwon Noh (Ph.D. Candidate)
In Proceedings IEEE ICNS Conference 2019
Dulles, Virginia; April 9-11, 2019
Anatomy of a No-Equipment-Failed (NEF) ICNS System Malfunction: The Case of Singapore Airlines SQ-327 Runway Excursion
Lance Sherry (GMU), Robert Mauro (Decision Research Inc.)
In Proceedings IEEE ICNS Conference 2019
Dulles, Virginia; April 9-11, 2019
Design of a Display for Alerting Cockpit Automation Function Configuration Changes
Lance Sherry (Ph.D.), Oleksandra Donnelly (Ph.D. Student)
In Proceedings IEEE ICNS Conference 2019
Dulles, Virginia; April 9-11, 2019
A Contrail Inventory of U.S. Airspace (2015)
Denis Avila(Ph.D. Candidate), Lance Sherry(Ph.D.)
In Proceedings IEEE ICNS Conference 2019
Dulles, Virginia; April 9-11, 2019
2018
Video: Design of a Flightdeck Automation Function Configuration (FD-AFC) Display
Lance Sherry (Ph.D.), Sasha Snisarevska (M.Sc. Student), Houda Kerkoub (B.Sc.)
2018
Aug 01, 2018
Design of a Control Law for an Autonomous Approach and Landing Spacing System
Lance Sherry, Oleksandra Snisarevska, John Shortle
2018 AIAA AVIATION Forum
June, 2018
OneTeamCockpit: Enhancing the Flexibility of Flight Deck Procedures during the Go-around
Tim Andre Schmidt (Airbus Defence and Space GmbH), Dr Jim Nixon (Cranfield University), Houda Kerkoub Kourdali (George Mason University), Christof Kemeny (Lufthansa Cityline), Dr Christian Popp (JetBlue)
Balancing Throughput and Safety: An Autonomous Approach and Landing System
Oleksandra Snisarevska (M.Sc. Student), Lance Sherry (Ph.D.), John Shortle (Ph.D.) and George Donohue (Ph.D.)
IEEE ICNS Conference 2018
April, 2018
Real-time Alerting of Flight Status for Non-aviation Suppliers in the Air Transportation System Value Chain
Lance Sherry (Ph.D.), Oleksandra Snisarevska (M.Sc. Student), Michael Perry (Ph.D. Student)
IEEE ICNS Conference 2018
April, 2018
Design of Ice Super Saturated Region (ISSR) Visualization Tool for Contrail Planning
Denis Avial (Ph.D. Candidate), Lance Sherry (Ph.D.), Terrence Thompson (Ph.D. The Climate Service, Inc.)
IEEE ICNS Conference 2018
April, 2018
2017
Video: Next Steps for Autonomy in Avionics: 6th Sense Technology (Part 1)
Video: Next Steps for Autonomy in Avionics: 6th Sense Technology (Part 2)
Lance Sherry (Ph.D.)
2017 Digital Avionics Systems Conference, St. Petersburg, Fla.
Sept 20, 2017
Available Operational Time Window (AOTW): A Method for Evaluating and Monitoring Airline Procedures
Houda Kourdali (B.Sc.), Lance Sherry (Ph.D.)
Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making
August 31, 2017
Dissertation: Resilience of Enterprises in a Contested Cyber-Environment
Bahram Yousefi (Ph.D.), Chair: Dr. Alex Levis
Dissertation: System Engineering and Operartions Research, George Mason University
July, 2017
Uncertainity Analysis for Event Sequence Diagrams in Avaiation Safety
Azin Zare Noghabi (Ph.D. Student), John Shortle (Ph.D.)
Internal Report
Jan, 2017
Lessons Learned from Airline Operations: The Achilles Heel of Autonomy: Functional Complexity Failures
Lance Sherry
ISAP 2017 Panel – From Here to Autonomy: Challenges and Promises.
May 11, 2017
Method for Calculating Net Radiative Forcing from Contrails from Airline Operations
Denis Avila (Ph.D. Candiadate), Lance Sherry (Ph.D.)
2017 Integrated Communications, Navigation, Surveillance (ICNS) Conference, Dulles, Va.
April 18-20, 2017
Simulation of Time-on-Procedure (ToP) for Evaluating Airline Procedures
Houda Kerkoub Kourdali (M.Sc. Candiadate), Lance Sherry (Ph.D.)
2017 Integrated Communications, Navigation, Surveillance (ICNS) Conference, Dulles, Va.
April 18-20, 2017
How Much Money Could Passengers Earn if the U.S. had European Airline Consumer Protection Laws?
Lance Sherry
2017 Integrated Communications, Navigation, Surveillance (ICNS) Conference, Dulles, Va.
April 18-20, 2017
Research
Strategic Planning and Industry Analysis SP&IA
- Industry Dynamical System Models
- Cost/Benefit Analysis
- Airline Revenue Management
- Airline IT/Enterprise Architecture Design
The Strategic Planning and Industry Analysis (SP&IA) Group specializes in the analysis of complex industrial sectors that provide services through networked operations. SP&IA Group has developed analytical techniques for modeling the dynamics of an industrial sector using models that seek equilibrium of capacity/supply and demand at each layer of the network. This approach is unique and reliable. Special emphasis has been given to the evaluation of a combination of economic and technological changes to the system. These models have been used by clients to identify opportunities for the introduction of new technologies and the system-wide impact of these technologies, and to develop and evaluate policy alternatives. These models have also been used widely by clients to inform a broader audience including the media, legislators, economists and investors. Clients include ….. Additional capabilities include systematic methods for detailed Cost/Benefit Analyses for the development of new technologies and new products, and the portfolio management of R&D funding.
For more information contact Dr. Lance Sherry 703-9931711, lsherry@gmu.edu
CATSR Airport and Airspace Simulation Group
Source: Webpage
- Airport and Airspace System Performance Analysis
- Airspace Design
- Stochastic Analysis and Simulations
Safety Analysis Group
Source: Webpage
- Probablistic Risk Assessment
- Safety Monitoring System Design
- Probablistic Wake Vortex Model
Environmental Analysis (EA) Group
Source: Webpage
- Aircraft-related Noise and its Effects in Urban and Rural Settings
- Local Air Quality and Interface to Broader Atmospheric Physics
- Planning for Mitigation of Environmental Effects
- Balanced Management of Environmental and Operational Factors
Security
- Deterrence Theory – Application to Air Transportation System and Airports
- Economic and Innovation Theory in Terrorism and Terrorism Defense
- Airport Security Design Through Passenger Flow Simulations
