Activity
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Thank you Caryn Dames for putting the focus on Baggage operations and giving everyone the opportunity to learn and share.
Thank you Caryn Dames for putting the focus on Baggage operations and giving everyone the opportunity to learn and share.
Liked by Tim Niznik
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Today is the birthday of our namesake, Joseph Sweetman Ames, a founding member of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), appointed…
Today is the birthday of our namesake, Joseph Sweetman Ames, a founding member of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), appointed…
Liked by Tim Niznik
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Learn how Workday boosts hospitality with staff engagement, process automation, data security, and workforce optimization for growth.
Learn how Workday boosts hospitality with staff engagement, process automation, data security, and workforce optimization for growth.
Liked by Tim Niznik
Patents
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Transportation System Disruption Management Apparatus and Methods
Issued US 10395197
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System and Method for Managing Transportation Transactions
Issued US 8615418B1
A system for tracking and managing diverted airline flights during irregular operations
Projects
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ML/AI Based Feedback Loop for Airline Operations
Developing an intelligent feedback system for airline operations that leverages cloud infrastructure, automated data pipelines, compelling visualization, and advanced AI/ML techniques. The objective of this system is to apply advanced data science techniques to systematically and rapidly learn from past events by relating outcomes to contextual information for the purpose of objectively assessing performance, creating scenario-based decision making, and capturing meaningful data to support…
Developing an intelligent feedback system for airline operations that leverages cloud infrastructure, automated data pipelines, compelling visualization, and advanced AI/ML techniques. The objective of this system is to apply advanced data science techniques to systematically and rapidly learn from past events by relating outcomes to contextual information for the purpose of objectively assessing performance, creating scenario-based decision making, and capturing meaningful data to support upstream planning functions.
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Probabilistic Decision Making
Created an innovative framework for incorporating weather uncertainty into airline operational decision making. Established and directed a unique collaboration between The MITRE Corp, The Weather Company, IBM, and American Airlines to design and build a probabilistic decision-making framework that was tested against a real operational scenario (e.g. cancellation decisions during FAA Ground Delay Programs).
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NASA Airspace Technology Demonstration 2 (ATD-2)
Served as the American Airlines Technical Lead for NASA’s 5-year Airspace Technology Demonstration 2 (ATD-2) which developed improved aircraft arrival, departure and surface movement predictability and efficiency. This role involved working closely with NASA leadership and technical teams to provide analytical and operational subject matter expertise in the design, development, and testing of key algorithms, procedures, and decision support tools in support of operational demonstrations at CLT…
Served as the American Airlines Technical Lead for NASA’s 5-year Airspace Technology Demonstration 2 (ATD-2) which developed improved aircraft arrival, departure and surface movement predictability and efficiency. This role involved working closely with NASA leadership and technical teams to provide analytical and operational subject matter expertise in the design, development, and testing of key algorithms, procedures, and decision support tools in support of operational demonstrations at CLT and DFW
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Collaborative Trajectory Options Program and Arrival Fix Balancing
Led the conceptual design, development, and deployment of a solution for managing airport arrival fix demand and capacity imbalances. This system works with FAA automation and internal flight planning systems to optimize the selection of alternative routes that minimize airspace arrival congestion and delay.
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Diversion Planning, Tracking, and Recovery
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Developed and implemented a comprehensive diversion management program including decision support tools for planning, tracking, and recovery of flight diversions. This effort also included development of an automated post-event analysis tool for better understanding and evaluating operational effectiveness during disruptions.
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Flight Cancellation Advisor
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Developed and deployed a real-time schedule reduction tool for generating cancellation plans for addressing operational irregularities caused by snow or convective weather. Plans are constructed to minimize impact on passengers, crew, and aircraft routings using an approach that combines subject matter expertise with mathematical optimization techniques.
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FAA Ground Delay Program Slot Optimizer
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Developed and deployed decision support for arrival slot management during FAA-mandated Ground Delay Programs (GDP’s). This tool identifies operational problems related to crew, curfew, and critical connections and contains logic for optimizing slot assignments to resolve crew legalities and to minimize critical passenger misconnections. It was subsequently been enhanced to recommend an optimal mix of cancellations and delays to minimize passenger re-accommodation delays.
Honors & Awards
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Best Innovation
AGIFORS Airline Operations Conference
"Improved Decision Making for Disruptive Weather Events using Ensemble Forecasts"
John Williams, Mike Robinson & Tim Niznik, IBM, MITRE & American Airlines
Decisions made in the absence of probability-based analytics will not just usually be wrong, they will consistently be sub-optimal, especially when those decisions involve weather. An increasingly important need for both airline operation centers (AOC’s) and air traffic management (ATM) is for improved response to weather events…"Improved Decision Making for Disruptive Weather Events using Ensemble Forecasts"
John Williams, Mike Robinson & Tim Niznik, IBM, MITRE & American Airlines
Decisions made in the absence of probability-based analytics will not just usually be wrong, they will consistently be sub-optimal, especially when those decisions involve weather. An increasingly important need for both airline operation centers (AOC’s) and air traffic management (ATM) is for improved response to weather events, specifically in terms of quantifying the level of risk around potential courses of action. What is needed is a practical, data-driven process that explicitly considers weather uncertainty in balance with the costs and risks for decision options. Such a capability would yield more consistent and efficient ATM initiatives and AOC responses that reduce avoidable delay, flight cancellations, costs, and passenger disruption. This talk brings together the perspectives of The MITRE Corporation, The Weather Company, and American Airlines who will present a framework to “bridge the gap” from deterministic to probabilistic decision-making using ensemble weather forecasts and multiple “trajectories” of possible weather constraint scenarios. -
Dallas Innovates Magazine - "Future 50 Innovators in DFW"
Dallas Innovates Magazine
Selected by Dallas Innovates Magazine as one of their "Future 50 in Dallas-Fort Worth" who are driving progress and pushing the limits of what’s possible in business, education, social innovation, and more.
https://dallasinnovates.com/digital-edition-dallas-innovates-magazine-2023/ -
AGIFORS Fellow
AGIFORS
AGIFORS is a professional society dedicated to the advancement and application of Operational Research in the airline industry with members representing more than 500 airlines, airline manufacturers, universities and aviation related companies and associations. An AGIFORS Fellow is reserved for individuals who have demonstrated outstanding and exceptional accomplishments and experience in the application of operations research to air transportation and who made significant contributions to the…
AGIFORS is a professional society dedicated to the advancement and application of Operational Research in the airline industry with members representing more than 500 airlines, airline manufacturers, universities and aviation related companies and associations. An AGIFORS Fellow is reserved for individuals who have demonstrated outstanding and exceptional accomplishments and experience in the application of operations research to air transportation and who made significant contributions to the AGIFORS community over an extended period of time through participation and leadership.
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Best Presentation
AGIFORS Annual Symposium
"Probabilistic Decision Making and Airline Operations: Why it Pays to Play Games of Chance"
Decisions made in the absence of probability-based analytics will not just usually be wrong, they will consistently be wrong, especially when those decisions involve weather and ATC. One of the objectives of our Decision Support Vision for the Operations Control Center is to improve how we respond to weather events, specifically in terms of the determining the timing, level of risk, and specific…"Probabilistic Decision Making and Airline Operations: Why it Pays to Play Games of Chance"
Decisions made in the absence of probability-based analytics will not just usually be wrong, they will consistently be wrong, especially when those decisions involve weather and ATC. One of the objectives of our Decision Support Vision for the Operations Control Center is to improve how we respond to weather events, specifically in terms of the determining the timing, level of risk, and specific actions to take. We need to move away from deterministic decision making that is primarily ad-hoc and experience-based to a more data-driven process that is built on predictive analytics and accounts for uncertainty. This talk looks at some examples where probabilistic decision making could be applied, some examples in the industry of where these techniques are already being applied, and finally, our current efforts to develop this capability internally. -
Best Presentation
AGIFORS Airline Operations Conference
"A New Approach to Airline Hub Disruption Management"
Severe thunderstorms at an airport can result in ramp closures, extensive Air Traffic Control delays, and flight diversions, all of which can lead to major disruptions of a flight schedule, especially when that airport is one of your major hubs. In an effort to better manage such events a new decision support tool was developed to both predict and respond to degraded airport capacity, gate congestion, customer connectivity, and other…"A New Approach to Airline Hub Disruption Management"
Severe thunderstorms at an airport can result in ramp closures, extensive Air Traffic Control delays, and flight diversions, all of which can lead to major disruptions of a flight schedule, especially when that airport is one of your major hubs. In an effort to better manage such events a new decision support tool was developed to both predict and respond to degraded airport capacity, gate congestion, customer connectivity, and other operational constraints such as crew legality and curfew restrictions. This talk will discuss how the ability to anticipate operational irregularities before they actually occur combined with the ability to dynamically generate a new flight schedule in minutes has resulted in a significant shift in the disruption management philosophy at American Airlines. -
Best Presentation
AGIFORS Operations Conference
"Large-Scale Airline Diversion Management"
This talk will focus on recent work done in Diversion Tracking at American Airlines, but will also touch on work being done in the related upstream process of actively managing the distribution of diversions and the downstream process of facilitating a smooth recovery of the diverted flights back to the hub. -
Best Innovation
AGIFORS Annual Symposium
“Attila the Hub: Decision Support for Airline Hub Reduction”
We discuss the development and implementation of an automated tool that identifies alternative cancellation plans to address operational irregularities such as those caused by snowstorms, thunderstorms, and ATC ground delays. These plans are constructed so as to minimize the impact on passengers, crew, and aircraft routings using an approach that combines subject matter expertise with mathematical optimization techniques. -
Most Innovative Breakthrough in Airline Operations
AGIFORS Annual Symposium
"Network-Based Methods for Large-Scale Resource Constrained Task Scheduling Problems with Applications to Aircraft Maintenance at American Airlines"
The most intensive form of routine aircraft maintenance, known as a “D-Check”, occurs every 6-8 years or approximately every 20,000 flight hours, involves thousands of tasks, and costs between $1-$2 million. Scheduling the tasks during such an event is typically performed by hangar supervisors and crew chiefs who use experience and judgement…"Network-Based Methods for Large-Scale Resource Constrained Task Scheduling Problems with Applications to Aircraft Maintenance at American Airlines"
The most intensive form of routine aircraft maintenance, known as a “D-Check”, occurs every 6-8 years or approximately every 20,000 flight hours, involves thousands of tasks, and costs between $1-$2 million. Scheduling the tasks during such an event is typically performed by hangar supervisors and crew chiefs who use experience and judgement to make decisions about what tasks to do, when to do them, and with which resources. This presentation discusses a modeling approach and solution algorithm for overhaul task scheduling, with the objective of minimizing aircraft downtime and reducing overtime labor costs.
More activity by Tim
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I grew up in France. My grandmother cried whenever she talked about 1944. She was sheltering in the basement of her home when she heard the sound of…
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Inclement weather conditions are, by far, one of the largest causes of flight delays in the United States. 🔑 reason: Convection around terminals…
Inclement weather conditions are, by far, one of the largest causes of flight delays in the United States. 🔑 reason: Convection around terminals…
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I’ve just returned home after an intense and fun week in Europe. First up was the Phocuswright European conference, where I connected with industry…
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I want to send out a warm note of appreciation to everyone who was able to come to Anchorage and make our ATL@GT meeting both so productive as well…
I want to send out a warm note of appreciation to everyone who was able to come to Anchorage and make our ATL@GT meeting both so productive as well…
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Had the pleasure of presenting at #AGIFORS Airline Operations meeting in Hamburg. This is a gathering of operations research professionals and…
Had the pleasure of presenting at #AGIFORS Airline Operations meeting in Hamburg. This is a gathering of operations research professionals and…
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The Smart Cities Connect conference was impactful, and I again walked away learning so much about innovations being propelled by city leaders and…
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Super excited to now be working with The Weather Company as an Aviation Customer Success Consultant. Fun and interesting times ahead, plus I still…
Super excited to now be working with The Weather Company as an Aviation Customer Success Consultant. Fun and interesting times ahead, plus I still…
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Hey I know this team! Talk about the best - Envoy’s crew schedule team never lets the airline down. Without crews the metal doesn’t move! Since…
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Professor Max Li is participating in a NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration-funded University Leadership Initiative (ULI) to…
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Today we celebrated our inaugural flight from Philadelphia (PHL) to Naples, Italy (NAP). Tomorrow we start direct service to Copenhagen Denmark…
Today we celebrated our inaugural flight from Philadelphia (PHL) to Naples, Italy (NAP). Tomorrow we start direct service to Copenhagen Denmark…
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Excited to share that our Hubble team at American Airlines has been selected as a finalist for the 2024 Data Team Disruptor Award from Databricks!…
Excited to share that our Hubble team at American Airlines has been selected as a finalist for the 2024 Data Team Disruptor Award from Databricks!…
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This was fun. Thank you B. Ben Baldanza and Scott McCartney for inviting me on the podcast!
This was fun. Thank you B. Ben Baldanza and Scott McCartney for inviting me on the podcast!
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Honored to accept the award on behalf of American Airlines into the Air Transport World Hall of Fame on ATW’s 50th anniversary in Dubai! Our own Doug…
Honored to accept the award on behalf of American Airlines into the Air Transport World Hall of Fame on ATW’s 50th anniversary in Dubai! Our own Doug…
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