Dr. Tasha Innis - COE Student of the Year 2002

JANE GARVEY PRESENTS FAA COE STUDENT OF THE YEAR AWARD TO UMD STUDENT

Jane Garvey, Former FAA Administrator, and Tasha Innis, Ph.D., 2001 FAA COE Student of the Year

The FAA is proud to announce that Dr. Tasha Innis, Center of Excellence for Operations Research (NEXTOR), University of Maryland (UMD), College Park, has won the FAA COE Outstanding Student of the Year award.  The designation for the award was made this year for the first time by FAA Administrator, Jane Garvey.  Ms. Garvey presented the award to Dr. Innis at the University of Maryland on March 16 in conjunction with her keynote address at the Workshop on Airline and National Strategies for Dealing with Airport and Airspace Congestion.

Dr. Innis received her undergraduate degree, Summa Cum Laude, in math from Xavier University of Louisiana in 1993 and her PhD degree from the University of Maryland in applied mathematics in December 2000.  Her dissertation entitled, "Stochastic Models for Determining Airport Arrival Capacity Distributions," addressed an essential problem in air traffic management of national concern: the quantification of airport arrival capacity uncertainty.  

In carrying out her research, Dr. Innis became a member of the Collaborative Decision Making team and interacted extensively with both the FAA and the airlines.  Intermediate results from her research were used in, "An Operational Assessment of Collaborative Decision Making in Air Traffic Management," which was prepared by the FAA's Free Flight Phase I Office. 

Dr. Innis has made scientific presentations on her work in air traffic management at several professional meetings, including recent national meetings of INFORMS, Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, and SIAM, Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

While at the University of Maryland, Dr. Innis taught several undergraduate mathematics courses for which she received outstanding teaching evaluations.  She was an active member of the Black Graduate Students in Applied Mathematics and Statistics Association, and was instrumental in its receiving the University of Maryland's "Golden Geese Award for mentoring and tutoring program it established.  Upon completing her studies, Dr. Innis accepted a faculty position at Trinity College.  The FAA’s Associate Administrator for Research and Acquisitions (ARA) is planning to offer Dr. Innis a summer position in the area of aviation research as it relates to collaborative decision making.

Dr. Innis is one of more than one hundred and forty students studying and conducting aviation research through academic and industry partnerships established with Air Transportation Centers of Excellence.  In addition to Operations Research, the FAA has Centers dedicated to Airport Technology, Airworthiness Assurance, and is planning to establish a new Center for General Aviation research this year.