I received the following job solicitation for a project with the
FAA's Human Factors Team in Atlantic City. They are looking for
someone with a BS and 10 years experience. This person will be
responsible for planning and carrying out human factors research
related to air traffic control, technical operations, standards, and
human factors. This person will take technical direction from the
Project On-Site manager.

Here is the contact info:

Liselotte J. Schioler, Sc.D.
Director, Research Program Development
National Institute of Aerospace
1000 Exploration Way
Hampton, VA 23666
757-325-6903 (direct)
757-636-8240 (cell)
l.schioler@...
www.nianet.org

Below is a copy/paste of the description of the 3 technical tasks
from the scope of work. Take care.

Josh Kennedy
President, TV-HFES


12. 0 TECHNICAL SUMMARY AND DELIVERABLES FOR THE THREE RESEARCH
TASKS AND THE CROSS-CUTTING TASK
Task 1: Air traffic control human factors (see 1.1.1)
Studies of air traffic controllers will be conducted under
conditions that are as similar as possible to those that they
confront on the job to obtain accurate capability assessments.
Ideally, experiments must be conducted using advanced simulation
equipment whenever possible. Measures of response time and accuracy
in a variety of different situations need to be recorded as
precisely as possible, making computer recording of such information
critical.

Subtask 1: The Contractor must evaluate the prior research done and
summarize this work in a concise and useable format. The Contractor
must provide technical skill capable of reviewing past work in the
area of ATC human factors that relates to performance assessment and
enhancement.

Subtask 2: The Contractor must develop airspace and air traffic
scenarios as required to carry out ATC human factors research.

Subtask 3: Under the guidance of the Technical Monitor, the
Contractor must develop detailed research test plans for the purpose
of setting up experiments that focus on air traffic controller
performance, visual scanning, and workload assessment for current
systems.

Subtask 4: The Contractor must conduct experiments within the
guidelines set by the American Psychological Association
(APA) "Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct" and
FAA Order 9500/25.

Subtask 5: The Contractor must document each experiment with a
technical note or report in the approved FAA Technical Center format
with references in APA format. If required, the Contractor must also
prepare PowerPoint briefings about each experiment.

Subtask 6: The Contractor must provide support as needed to perform
non experimental studies of controller performance issues. These may
include survey and interview type studies, which may involve travel
to field locations. Survey forms and interview protocols must be
approved by the Technical Monitor and will be conducted in
accordance with APA guidelines.

Subtask 7: The Contractor must provide support as needed in the area
of human engineering of displays and controls that are used or may
be used in the control of air traffic. This support may involve what
has been traditionally been defined as basic ergonomics but may also
include the design or testing of decision support systems. This
work, if requested, must be in support of the current ATC system and
must be geared to specific requests from air traffic sponsors. The
government will provide hardware and software where applicable and
laboratory space as required.

Subtask 8: The Contractor must provide simulation support service as
necessary. These services may include setting up equipment and
materials for the simulation; creating and maintaining schedules;
preparing instructions to participants; developing data acquisition
forms; managing participants; calibrating equipment; preparing,
copying, and distributing simulation materials; initiating and
monitoring simulation runs; organizing, transcribing, and archiving
data; formatting data for analysis; and analyzing data.

Task 1: Deliverables for the ATC human factors task
Task Deliverable Due date
Subtask 1 Summary report As needed
Subtask 2 Traffic samples/airspace Ongoing
Subtask 3 Research plans Ongoing
Subtask 4 Conduct Experiments Ongoing
Subtask 5 Technical notes/Final Reports Ongoing
Estimate of 2 tech notes per year
Subtask 6 Non experimental Study Support Ongoing
Subtask 7 Human Engineering Support Ongoing
Subtask 8 Simulation Support Ongoing
Plans and Progress reports Monthly





Task 2. Technical Operations and Standards Research (see 1.1.2)

Subtask 1: When required, the Contractor must conduct a literature
survey, evaluate the prior research, and summarize the prior work in
a concise and useable format.

Subtask 2: When required, the Contractor must perform the following
types of tasks.

• Provide human-centered system design and evaluation
engineering service.
• Evaluate human-machine interface design and system
performance.
• Provide guidelines for display screen development, use of
color, icons, and alerts.
• Develop measures of human performance and conduct human
performance evaluations using advanced equipment and procedures.
• Participate in the development of expert systems and job
aids.
• Provide knowledge engineering service, conduct knowledge
extraction studies, and develop the knowledge base.
• Prepare reports describing study results

Subtask 3: The Contractor must provide support including the
necessary experienced personnel, materials, equipment, and travel as
needed to perform experimental and non experimental studies. These
may include laboratory studies or survey and interview type studies,
which may involve travel to field locations. When required, the
Contractor must accomplish all necessary arrangements, scheduling,
equipment procurement, preparation of instructions to participants,
development of data acquisition forms, etc. to enable and facilitate
the studies. Support tasks may include, but are not limited to the
following activities.
• Developing detailed research test plans under the guidance
of the Technical Monitor.
• Developing data acquisition tools, materials, and forms.
• Setting up equipment and materials for the study including
preparation and calibration of equipment and preparing, copying and
distributing study materials
• Collecting data (such as conducting structured interviews,
taking measurements, collecting observational data).
• Supporting data analyses (such as organizing and formatting
data for analysis, and conducting statistical analyses, preparing
graphs and figures, and summarizing results).

Subtask 4: The Contractor must document each experiment with a
technical note or report as appropriate in the approved HFTAC format
with references in APA format. The Contractor must also prepare
PowerPoint slides summarizing the study as requested.

Subtask 5: Standard Development Support. The Contractor must
support the development, revisions, and updates to human factors
standards activities. The support may include the following
activities.
• Document configuration control.
• Tracking of user and reviewer feedback and errata.
• Responding to user request for information as directed by
the Government.
• Obtaining, copying, and scanning articles.
• Conducting literature reviews, reviewing literature and
standards for information, and summarizing information into a
concise and usable format.
• Conducting studies aimed at enhancing document usability.
• Document proofreading against established criteria

Task 2: Technical Operations and Standards Support
Task Deliverable Due date
Subtask 1 Summary report As required
Subtask 2 Human Engineering Support Ongoing
Subtask 3 Experimental and Non-experimental Study Support
Ongoing
Subtask 4 Technical notes/Final Reports Ongoing
Estimate of 2 tech notes per year
Subtask 5 Standard Development Support Ongoing

Plans and Progress reports Monthly

Task 3: Systems Development and Acquisition Support (see 1.1.3)

The work in this area is often system-specific. Specific systems,
prototypes of systems, or sets of systems are evaluated for
usability, compliance with standards, and consistency with existing
tools. Sometimes the work involves collecting baseline data on
current system use, participating in design reviews and documenting
the results, or eliciting information on system needs and
requirements from user groups.

Subtask 1: Human Factors requirements specification. The Contractor
must provide the necessary experienced personnel to accomplish the
following types of tasks.
• Identify human factors requirements applicable to the
specific system acquisition consistent with the FAA acquisition
management system.
• Elicit user needs from user groups or documentation,
document the user needs, and translate the user needs into system
requirements.
• Collect and document baseline data on current system use and
translate those data into system requirements.
• Attend user group meetings as required to provide technical
support and gather information.
• Define requirements and create program and implementation
plans.

Subtask 2: Evaluate systems or system documentation against current
human factors principles, practices, or standards. The Contractor
must perform the following types of activities on this subtask.
• Identify relevant information from specific standards,
requirements, or guidelines.
• Conduct a literature search, read, and summarize literature
on a particular topic.
• Design and conduct system or documentation evaluations.
• Document the results of this evaluation in a formal report.

Subtask 3: Human Factors assessments and usability analyses. The
Contractor must apply Human Factors methods such as usability
assessments or heuristic evaluations of specific systems,
prototypes, or equipment. This subtask may require the Contractor to
perform the following types of activities.
• Collect human performance data or equipment performance data
(such as photometric or audiometric measures).
• Develop data collection instruments such as questionnaires
or rating scales.
• Participate in working group meetings.
• Conduct design reviews.
• Conduct benefit studies.
• Provide data management and reduction services as required.
• Prepare reports describing the assessments and results.


Subtask 4: Iterative Prototyping. The Contractor must provide
experienced personnel to accomplish the following types of tasks in
the iterative prototyping process.
• Create prototype(s) based on knowledge of requirements and
customer needs in a format mutually agreed upon by the Contractor
and Government.
• Test or evaluate prototype(s).
• Revise or refine prototype(s) based on the results of tests
and user feedback.
• Create and present PowerPoint presentation(s) to communicate
findings to stakeholders.
• Provide graphics for presentations.
• Document design solutions.

Subtask 5: Report writing. The Contractor must prepare written
documentation summarizing findings in the approved HFTAC format with
references in APA format.

Task 3: Systems Development and Acquisition Support
Task Deliverable Due date
Subtask 1 Human Factors Requirements Specification As
Required
Subtask 2 Evaluate Systems against Current Knowledge or
Standards Ongoing
Subtask 3 Human Factors Assessments and Usability Analyses
Ongoing
Subtask 4 Iterative Prototyping Ongoing

Subtask 5 Report Writing Ongoing /per project

Plans and Progress Reports Monthly

Task 4: Cross-cutting Support (see 1.1.4)

The Contractor will perform the following activities in support of
all three of the research tasks.
Subtask 1: Provide technical editing support for document
preparation. The Contractor must provide an experienced technical
editor to ensure that all HFTAC published documents conform to the
required writing styles, contain no grammatical or syntactic errors,
include all required materials (e.g., references, acronym lists,
appendixes), and are professionally formatted.
• The technical editor must also coordinate the publication
and distribution of the documents.
• Document management including editing, formatting, and
numbering, formatting of references, indexes and tables of contents.

Subtask 2: Website and prototyping support. The Contractor must
provide an experienced computer scientist who will build and
maintain a reliable, professional, and user-friendly internet
website for the HFTAC. This individual may also be required to
create standalone software applications as rapid prototypes of
systems, data collection tools, data analysis routines, and small-
scale database management systems. The support may include the
following activities.
• Ensuring that the information on the website is up-to-date.
• Creating web-based data collection tools, data analysis
routines, and a small-scale database management system to manage the
on-line standard.
• Adding content to the website as appropriate.
• Provide rapid prototyping for CHI development and Web site
development

Task 4: Cross-cutting Support
Task Deliverable Due date
Subtask 1 Technical Editing of Documents Ongoing
Subtask 2 Web and Prototyping Support Ongoing
Plans and Progress Reports Monthly