Dr. Williamson oversees the FAA's Airspace Laboratory and its ongoing refinement, fielding, and maintenance of the Sector Design Analysis Tool (SDAT). The Laboratory taps ETMS, and prepares, packages, and distributes the system's flight activity and delay information to analysts in the FAA, other agencies, and the legal and research communities.The Laboratory also collects OFFLOAD data, which provides higher fidelity air traffic data within the CONUS, using Oracle databases on LINUX. SDAT, a custom designed 3D airspace modeling tool, is an interactive decision system that evaluates the effects of proposed airspace changes on conflict potential, traffic loading, travel efficiency, and workload.
In the Airspace Laboratory, Dr. Williamson manages and administers a system of Sun Solaris, Red Hat Linux 9 and Windows 2003 servers and workstations networked with a TCP/IP LAN/WAN, and maintains multiple Oracle databases.
He directs and participates in system monitoring, software and hardware configuration and installation, maintenance, and user support activities. His team supports daily operations, monitors system performance, maintains system documentation, conducts troubleshooting, and installs new network hardware and software - integrating new systems into the existing processing stream. The team defines technical requirements and documents operational procedures. It plans and analyzes options to upgrade and expand the network. It also documents deficiencies and defects and recommends transition and implementation actions to remedy them.
Dr. Williamson selected hardware and software for the Laboratory's system upgrade to an Oracle 9i database on a Sun Solaris server with a 3.2 Terabyte storage array. He recently selected and implemented another upgrade to a 20 Terabyte EMC San system. He directed full life-cycle development activities of data pre-processing software, including software design, development, testing, documentation, and implementation. He developed baseline quality control checks on the incoming data stream and regularly updates the checks to reflect changes in the data stream and to implement new quality control metrics. His work on these and other enhancements led the FAA Manager to appoint Dr. Williamson as the Data Team Manager for a multi-contractor team in support of the Laboratory's data warehousing activities.
On SDAT, Dr. Williamson manages staff that is adapting the tool for individual air traffic facilities, having migrated the system from a UNIX to Microsoft platform and enhanced the graphic displays for depicting airspace designs. To support installation at FAA facilities, the staff customizes and tests the tool, specify the initial hardware configuration, acquire quotes and purchase the equipment. It also sets-up workstations and configures peripherals (tape drives, printers, disks) as needed. After coordinating delivery, it provides telephone support and troubleshooting, arranges maintenance contracts and coordinates service with vendors.
On both the Laboratory and SDAT, Dr. Williamson, develops task technical requirements, directs task scheduling, and oversees the budget. He prepares weekly and monthly progress reports on all staff activities, and conducts staff performance evaluations. He authors qualification statements for new positions, and interviews and hires candidates.
In his spare time, Dr. Williamson enjoys reading science fiction, playing military simulation games, and watching Japanese Animation.
Dr. Williamson oversees the FAA's Airspace Laboratory and its ongoing refinement, fielding, and maintenance of the Sector Design Analysis Tool (SDAT). The Laboratory taps ETMS, and prepares, packages, and distributes the system's flight activity and delay information to analysts in the FAA, other agencies, and the legal and research communities.The Laboratory also collects OFFLOAD data, which provides higher fidelity air traffic data within the CONUS, using Oracle databases on LINUX. SDAT, a custom designed 3D airspace modeling tool, is an interactive decision system that evaluates the effects of proposed airspace changes on conflict potential, traffic loading, travel efficiency, and workload.
