Seminar

Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management
The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Title: Data Mining in Operations: Anomaly Detection in Airline Flights Using Black Box Data



Speaker: Miss Lishuai LI

               Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics

               Massachusetts Institute of Technology

               USA



DATE:    25 February 2013 (Monday)

TIME:     11:00a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

VENUE:   Room 513, William M.W. Mong Engineering Building, CUHK

Abstract

Airlines collect massive amounts of data from daily flight operations, yet these data are previously underutilized due tolimitations of existing analytical tools.  This research develops a new method using operational data in proactive safety management. It applies statistical models and computational techniques to detect operational patterns using data from Flight Data Recorder (FDR), also known as the black box. By highlighting abnormal flights which diverge from normal patterns, the result exposes early signs of performance deviations and safety degradation. The method has been tested using a large FDR data set with ten thousand flights; its results reveal emerging issues that were not accounted for in the past.  The method can help airlines to deploy predictive maintenance and to train staff accordingly. Further, it can be applied in solving big data challenges in many operational fields, benefiting finance, business intelligence, logistics and supply chain management as well as other service industries.





Biography

Lishuai Li is a PhD candidate in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Her research interests include data mining, statistical and machine learning for big data applications, human factors in complex sociotechnical systems, and supply chain management.  Her dissertation focuses on applications of data mining in airline operations and safety management.  She is also applying her research in solving real-world challenges in a number of service industries.  Li received a M.S. from MIT in 2009 and a B.Eng. from Fudan University in 2007.

Host:           Prof. Helen Meng

Tel:             (852) 3943-8316

Email:          hmmeng@se.cuhk.edu.hk

Enquiries:     Mrs. Monica Wong

                    Department of Systems Engineering

                    and Engineering Management

                    CUHK

Tel.:             (852) 3943-8315 

Email:          dept@se.cuhk.edu.hk