Amy Alexander grew up in a city steeped in aviation history, Dayton, Ohio, and earned an Engineering Psychology Ph.D. at Illinois that had a focus on aviation human factors. Alexander also took advantage of the Beckman Institute’s Flight Simulator during her time at Illinois, but it wasn’t until after leaving college that she could realize a longtime desire, going from a virtual cockpit to the controls of a real airplane.
Alexander did her research by using the flight simulator of Beckman’s Illinois Simulator Laboratory (ISL), interviewing pilots and air traffic controllers, and generally becoming immersed in the world of aviation. With her background it was only natural that Alexander would want to learn to fly, but time and financial constraints delayed the opportunity until after her doctoral work was finished.
When she did finally begin training for her pilot’s license last summer, Alexander came to the task with much more knowledge than the usual student learning to fly. And that fact wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
“I guess I had been doing the research for about nine years prior to getting my own pilot’s license,” Alexander said. “It’s interesting, because you learn a lot through aviation human factors research about the things that can go wrong in flight.
“So it was exciting and intimidating to know too much,” she added with a laugh.
That knowledge turned out to be a good thing, however.
“That was certainly something I talked about with my instructor,” Alexander said. “From his perspective, he was like ‘well that will probably make you a better pilot; you won’t take certain risks and you will be a little more cautious.’”
Alexander earned her pilot’s license in November while working in her current position as a human factors scientist for Aptima, a firm that specializes in the design of user-centered technology and training systems and organizations. She is Team Lead of the Human Systems Design Team in Aptima’s Cognitive Systems Engineering Division in Woburn, Mass. It’s a position that allows her to continue much of the work she did at Beckman and Illinois.
“The research I conducted at Beckman was fundamental in preparing me for my job at Aptima in a variety of ways,” Alexander said.
As examples, Alexander mentioned the experiences she gained presenting her work in publications and at conferences and working in ISL’s flight simulator.
“Working in the flight simulation facility afforded me the opportunity to develop practical skills that I’ve continued to improve at Aptima,” she said. “And, finally, my passion for aviation grew steadily throughout my time at Beckman, and I think this passion underlies a great deal of my success here at Aptima.”