Software Engineer Contributes to Innovative Aviation Safety Program
Eugene Mwendwa
September 2010
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Eugene Mwendwa |
When Eugene Mwendwa started at MITRE in 2004, he saw an opportunity to apply his software engineering skills to a broad range of aviation initiatives. Since then, he has become an ongoing contributor to the Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS) program, which merges data collected from a wide range of aviation-related sources to maintain high levels of safety in the National Airspace System. MITRE is responsible for collecting and analyzing this aviation data to identify potential safety issues before they happen.
Mwendwa, a software systems engineer in our Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD), has learned that he really enjoys the research and development aspect of his work. "Initially, I didn't think I would be doing software-related work, but I've found that at MITRE there are always interesting opportunities to work on something new. I feel fortunate to have supported projects that involved looking at new technologies and prototyping them to demonstrate a capability."
While at MITRE, Mwendwa has worked on a variety of initiatives, each with its own technical challenges and complexities. On one, he created developer guides for some of the simulation capabilities in MITRE's integrated air traffic management (ATM) laboratory. On another project, he developed and implemented formal configuration management practices for that same laboratory. He also assisted in the integration of the commercial X-Plane flight simulator into the ATM lab using the CAASD-developed AviationSimNet.
Compiling Vast Amounts of Aviation Data
The bulk of his work over the past two years has been on the ASIAS program. "I'm currently involved in a couple of ASIAS architecture projects. One is to retrieve and archive aircraft track data from all terminal radar facilities available through the FAA National Offload Program [NOP] office. The NOP requests the data from an application programming interface and then sends it to MITRE."
This project has proved to be an ambitious undertaking. "It's challenging," says Mwendwa, "because there are a number of constraints we have to consider, such as limited bandwidth to the terminal facilities, life of the data, and the size of the data. Even the simple task of streaming back 15 to 20 GB of data per day over a T1 line was a problem that required us to experiment with different data compression techniques. After we identified the techniques that worked best, we presented our findings to the NOP office, and they implemented them."
He continues, "Another problem I'm working on is finding ways to maximize the application programming interface [API] calls to get the maximum amount of data since the data's 'life' is only 45 days. So I am currently trying to define a critical ratio to manage the priority queue. The critical formula needs to take into account how much bandwidth we have, the size of data, and the remaining life of the data. This way we can forecast how many API calls are needed to maximize the amount of data collected. The ASIAS program can then merge this data with data from other sources and use it to identify potential problems."
Urmila Hiremath, Mwendwa's program manager, has many good things to say about him. "Much of the strength of our accomplishments is through the hard work of diverse working teams. Eugene has strong technical skills, a great attitude, and is very innovative—all qualities needed on our high-impact teams. With these qualities along with his leadership abilities, he has made great strides in developing the Airspace Security Environment and the ASIAS data portal."
Roots in Africa
Born in Tanzania, East Africa, Mwendwa grew up in several African countries—spending ten years in Ethiopia, four in Kenya for boarding school, and two in Angola. "My father was a diplomat, so we moved often," he says. And while his parents' focus was on international relations, Mwendwa was fascinated with engineering. "As a child, I liked taking things apart—I couldn't always get them back together, but I tried!"
He settled in the United States in 1991 when he began his undergraduate studies in computer science at American University in Washington, D.C. He joined MITRE's Transportation Security and Information Evolution division within CAASD shortly after earning his master's degree in information systems from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
In 2009, Mwendwa won a Modern-Day Technology Leader award from the Black Engineer of the Year Awards Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math conference in Baltimore. "I was honored to be nominated. I know that sounds cliché, but it's true," he says.
"I've really enjoyed my time here. I have found that work at MITRE always presents you with new challenges and new ideas. I think that the information our staff possess and are willing to share is priceless."
—by Kay M. Upham
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