Researchers at SMU’s AT&T Center for Virtualization are testing the effectiveness of an innovative approach they developed to improve pilot training and better understand what stress factors pilots may experience in the cockpit.
Through a partnership with CAE USA, a technology company that specializes in flight simulation and other digital immersion technologies and platforms, SMU researchers developed a method to use cognitive load sensing and machine learning to capture how pilots react to various scenarios in a flight simulator. This includes measuring pupil size, heart rate and other physical reactions to determine the pilot’s levels of interest, stress, or fatigue.
The researchers are now comparing the physical observations recorded by the flight training staff and the students’ self-evaluations to the results of the SMU biometric analysis. The findings are expected to yield the first real-time analysis of student situational awareness, and will be used to improve flight training.