*_Notice and Invitation_*
Oral Defense of Doctoral Dissertation
The Volgenau School of Engineering, George Mason University

Guillermo Calderon-Meza
Bachelor in Electronic Engineering, Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica, 
1997
Master of Science, Bolton Institute of Higher Education, 2000

AN ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS OF NET-CENTRIC OPERATIONS USING MULTIAGENT 
ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR

Thursday, March 24, 2011, 2:00 -- 4:00pm
Engineering Bldg., 2901

All are invited to attend.

*_Committee_*
Lance Sherry, Chair
Robert Axtell
Kenneth De Jong
Thomas Speller, Jr.


*_Abstract_*

The National Airspace System (NAS) is a resource managed in the public 
good. Equity in NAS access, and use for private, commercial and 
government purposes is coordinated by regulations and made possible by 
procedures, and technology. Researchers have documented scenarios in 
which the introduction of new concepts-of-operations and technologies 
has resulted in unintended consequences, including gaming. Concerns over 
unintended consequences are a significant issue for modernization 
initiatives and have historically been a roadblock for innovation and 
productivity improvement in the NAS. To support the development and 
evaluation of Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) and 
Single European Air Traffic Management Research Programme (SESAR), 
concepts-of-operations and technologies, analysis methodologies and 
simulation infrastructure are required to evaluate the feasibility and 
estimate the NAS-wide benefits. State-of-the-art NAS-wide simulations, 
capable of modeling 60,000 flights per day, do not include 
decision-making. A few recent studies have added algorithms to these 
simulations to perform decision-making based on static rules that yield 
in deterministic outcomes.

A copy of this doctoral dissertation is on reserve at the Johnson Center 
Library.