MITRE Engineer Honored for Achievements in Airborne Collision Avoidance

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

McLean, Virginia, January 8, 2008 — Mr. Andrew Zeitlin, D.Sc., senior principal engineer in The MITRE Corporation's Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD), has received the 2007 Dr. John C. Ruth Digital Avionics Award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). AIAA is the world's largest professional society devoted to the progress of engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense.

The award, formerly known as the Digital Avionics Award, recognizes outstanding achievement in technical management and/or implementation of digital avionics in space or aeronautical systems to include system analysis, design, development or application. Zeitlin is the first recipient of the award—recently renamed as a tribute to Dr. John C. Ruth, a leader in the avionics community.

Zeitlin was honored as one of the leading designers of collision avoidance systems and algorithms of the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS). TCAS is the world standard system for collision avoidance. It is an airborne system, independent of ground air traffic control, which uses range and altitude data to detect potential collision threats and suggest evasive maneuvers.

He was also praised for his leadership roles on standards committees for TCAS and unmanned aircraft systems sense and avoid and for his work developing International Civil Aviation Organization standards. Zeitlin received the award at a banquet held in conjunction with the annual Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC) in Dallas.

"Andy has made—and continues to make—groundbreaking contributions to the avionics field," said Agam Sinha, Ph.D., senior vice president and general manager of CAASD, a federally funded research and development center MITRE operates for the Federal Aviation Administration. "His recognition by the AIAA is a tribute to his innovative work and a true honor for CAASD."

With MITRE since 1974, Zeitlin joined MITRE's fledgling collision avoidance project in 1976, developing the first set of algorithms for the Beacon-based Collision Avoidance System. He holds a doctorate from the department of electrical engineering and computer science at George Washington University, a master's in electrical engineering from New York University, and a bachelor's in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

MITRE (www.mitre.org) is a not-for-profit company that provides systems engineering, research and development, and information technology support to the government. It operates federally funded research and development centers for the Department of Defense, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Internal Revenue Service, with principal locations in Bedford, Mass., and McLean, Va.

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