The Center for Air Transportation Resilience (CATRes) visited Vaughn College on Thursday, June 4 to share their research on how to improve the National Airspace System (NAS). Attendees took part in a tabletop exercise exploring the resilience of NAS. Participants tested what happens when a major weather event triggers mass diversions in a simulation involving the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, airlines and airports. The event also featured poster presentations from student researchers on topics including “Aviation Disruption Analytics: Human v. AI”, “Passenger Rebooking: The Advantage of Early Departure” and “GDP Planning with Contingent Capacity.”  

CATRes is a NASA-funded university leadership initiative where universities, industry partners and government agencies collaborate to strengthen the resilience of the US air transportation system. This multi-sector partnership includes Vaughn College, University of California, Berkley, the FAA, airlines and other collaborators. The group primarily focuses on improving the NAS to better withstand and respond to disruptions such as system challenges, severe weather and other operational challenges.