Profiles

Graduate Profile - Operational Analysis

Chris Close
MSc Operational Research, University of Southampton.
I joined NATS on the Science Graduate Scheme in October 2007 and my first 6-month placement was split between the Airport Capacity Studies team and the Environmental Analysis team. This involved working on the capacity declaration studies for Heathrow and Dublin Airports to determine how many aircraft per hour and per day could use the airfields based on numerous factors. As part of the environmental work, I was responsible for providing the emissions figures for airspace change public consultations, which involved calculating the expected emissions on the current procedures and comparing these to the calculated figures of the designed routes. Read more

Following this, I moved on to the Post-Operations Analysis team. During this six-month stint, I was responsible for producing the annual delay figures for all aircraft under NATS control. The figures produced using the delay models within Operational Analysis are used to determine NATS performance in this area, for which the company is given financial incentives.

After my first year, I moved back into the Environmental Analysis team for my final placement which is where I work today. I was heavily involved in producing an annual estimate of the total CO₂ emitted in NATS airspace from 2006 onwards. The company has set a target to reduce the emissions produced under their control by 10% based on the 2006 figure and so this enabled me to be involved in a high profile piece of work, not just for the department but for the company as a whole. I also developed a sampling methodology - which I learnt at university - into a process that much of the department uses to determine their samples for the analysis work.

Now I've graduated from the scheme, I'm involved in developing an environmental metric for the company to be measured against. This is similar to the delay performance measure mentioned previously, and even more high profile for the company than the CO₂ emissions targets. This metric has been developed from scratch and has enabled me to put the modelling and statistical knowledge I developed at university to good use. I'm also using existing noise modelling tools from around the industry and developing them for UK airport regulations, as well as for the rest of the world, so that the department gains a capability in this area and can sell these skills and noise modelling expertise worldwide. Hopefully, this will involve me taking some trips to exotic places...

Matt Close
MSc in Operational Research, University of Southampton
Since my days as a Science Graduate, I've worked on, and been given the responsibility of managing, many different projects in a variety of fields, including environmental work and safety net analysis. I have recently been given the opportunity of managing the Wake Vortex project in the Operational Analysis department. There has been a lot of activity in the field recently, which is keeping me very busy. Read more

My first task of the day is to work on a presentation that I've been asked to give at a Safety workshop in Amsterdam, on wake vortex reporting and analysis in the UK. I've had a number of opportunities to present since I've been at NATS and I've also been on a presentation skills course. Last month I got the opportunity to present at Airbus in Toulouse, so there are definitely positives to presenting.

Later in the morning, I have a meeting with the other activity supervisors in the Current Operations Analysis team. We catch up on the previous month's project issues and achievements. It's also an ideal opportunity to learn about other projects in the department.

After lunch, I travel over to Swanwick Control Centre to meet with one of my customers in Safety Performance & Improvement. We discuss the agenda for an upcoming meeting with Virgin Atlantic and agree on a number of actions, which will have to be completed before the meeting takes place.

After work I drive back home to Southampton and head to the sports centre where NATS has an 11-a-side football match against another organisation. A few of my friends from the department also play and it has proven to be a really good opportunity to meet people across the whole of NATS and attempt to keep fit.

After the game and a quick beer, I head home feeling tired after a busy day and a hard game, and look forward to driving back home to Bath for the weekend after work tomorrow.

A Day in the Life - Research & Development

Andy Close
BSc Mathematics (European Studies) at the University of Durham
After leaving the railway station shuttle bus, I'm greeted by a colleague from a previous project as I cross the foyer. A chat over a coffee about the paths we have taken since that work ensues, before I make my way upstairs to my desk. The department is already buzzing about the big news of the day; a set of controller tools which had its roots in the Research and Development department (now known as the Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research department) has been successfully tested in live conditions overnight in London Area Control Centre at nearby Swanwick. Read more

A departmental meeting is scheduled for the morning; one of the company's new senior managers is visiting us. He tells us about himself and his role, but is of course interested in our role in the night's big developments. The Tools team describes the original idea and how they worked with air traffic controllers to develop it into a feasible operational concept. Then my Algorithms & Architecture team takes over. We talk about the underlying mathematics which drives the system, and the prototyping of various algorithms as the scope of the project expands. Finally the Validation team explains the methods used to ensure that the new system is acceptable to controllers and how ATC confidence and training is enhanced.

At the end of the meeting there is a short session where a representative of each team summarises the work in their area. It is vital for me to keep up-to-date with the work of other teams, and it is always useful to establish contacts and increase understanding of what everybody else is doing.

After the departmental meeting I'm off to the replay laboratory. This is a full-scale simulator of Swanwick Centre and, as we are expecting controllers in to assess some advanced functionality next week, we need to ensure our own understanding is up to scratch. We have spent several hours over the last few weeks running shadow simulations on real operational traffic, with real radar, flight and radio information being passed to us. These sessions are used to prepare scenarios to replay with controllers, who are prompted to provide feedback about the performance of the algorithms underpinning the tools.

An hour in the lab satisfies us that we are ready to run the workshops. Time is vital when working with operational air traffic controllers, so it is crucial to ensure the scripts are perfect. There's just time for a lunchtime run (I'm marathon training and the lunch hour provides a perfect opportunity), before eating lunch and grabbing a lift down the road to Swanwick.

I have two meetings there: the first involves a weekly session with software engineering. Other strands of testing have turned up some observations about the performance of our tools, so we meet to go through these and decide whether they are attributable to misunderstandings, misinterpretations or specification omissions. Easy week this week; a couple of controllers have requested some minor changes but these are already scheduled for a later software build, so we wrap up quickly.

The second meeting is more challenging. I've been involved in the project for a long time, so I've seen some issues that the operational controllers haven't yet come across. Since these issues were unexpected, I'm meeting a set of experienced controllers to explain what's going on - and why. As ever with controllers, a room of six people can result in six distinct opinions, depending on the sectors they work in, their own experiences and so on. I explain the issues, and there is a healthy discussion between the controllers - which I stay out of as they are the experts. After a good half hour, there are still two factions - so this one won't be closed today. They agree that they will have to run their own workshop to decide what the tools ultimately do, so I volunteer to come along to support it.

Leaving the meeting, there is just time to drop into the controllers' common room, to catch up with a couple of cricket team-mates and sort the team for next week's NATS tournament. We're quietly confident. Then it's back on to the shuttle bus to the station and home.