Cognitive Engineering and Safety Organization in Air Traffic Management (PDF)

Tom Kontogiannis, PhD, is a professor in Human Factors and Industrial Safety in the Department of Production Engineering & Management, Technical University of Crete. He holds degrees in engineering, industrial safety and human factors engineering. While working as a human factors consultant in England (1988-1997), he took part in more than 30 industrial projects regarding human reliability, decision-support systems, risk assessment and business process management. Since 1997, he heads the Cognitive Ergonomics & Industrial Safety (CEIS) Lab in Technical University of Crete and works on human performance modeling, decision making under stress, training of cognitive skills, error management, applications of system dynamics to safety, organizational safety and risk management. He has published many peer-reviewed journal papers and a book on guidelines for preventing human error in process safety. Since 2005, he is actively involved in the experimental analysis of cognitive strategies used by air traffic controllers in managing unusual occurrences. A real-time ATC simulator has been used to model the complexity of air traffic management, examine conflict detection and resolution strategies as well as simulate near misses. Recent work with the European Commission includes virtual reality systems for industrial training, information tools for human performance modeling and design of safety management systems.

Stathis Malakis, PhD, is an active air traffic controller working for the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA) for seventeen years. He holds tower, approach procedural, and approach radar and instructor/assessor/examiner ratings. He led the development of HCAA's safety management system and he is the safety focal point of Rhodes/Diagoras Aerodrome Air Traffic Control section. He holds a BSc in Mathematics, an MSc in Air Transport Management and a PhD in Cognitive Systems Engineering. He completed an experimental analysis of unusual