TRB Symposium on Aviation Innovation and Research

The symposium planning committee welcomes expressions of interest in participating in the following sessions anticipated to be programmed during the event.  Please submit a title and descriptive abstract on what you would contribute to the program through our Call for Presentations.  Submissions are due February 1, 2026.  Note:  AICP and PDH credits will be available for most planned concurrent sessions.

Advancing Human Factors Risk Assessment in Safety Risk Management

Human Reliability Analysis has long been a cornerstone of assessing human performance in safety-critical systems, yet its limitations in capturing the complexity of human factors risks have become increasingly evident. Traditional HRA methods often rely on probabilistic models that struggle to account for cognitive, organizational, and contextual influences on human behavior. This panel will critically examine these limitations and explore alternative frameworks for human factors risk assessment that move beyond reductionist approaches. Experts from high-reliability domains will discuss qualitative and systems-based methodologies. Case studies will illustrate how these approaches provide a more nuanced understanding of human performance variability and emergent risks. Attendees will gain insights into integrating alternative human factors assessment frameworks into safety risk management.

How U.S. National Demographic Changes Will Impact Air Travel in the 2030s and Beyond

The 2020 U.S. Census indicated peak retirements will be reaching a crescendo over the next 2-3 years. This session will investigate implications of these retirements and other anticipated changes on the aviation workforce and travel demand gleaned from the census and other data.

Not Just Winging It: Strategies to Fill Aviation Hiring Gaps Inspired by Best Practice and Generational Differences

The CAE Aviation Talent Forecast estimates that the aviation industry will need nearly 1.5 million new aviation professionals to fulfill growing aviation demand. Filling that gap will require new approaches to staffing and recruitment. Inspiration can be found in peer industries and through considering where new and innovative hires can be found, from new students to seasoned professionals..

Training and Safety Needs of Personnel at Airports

With increased staff turnover and overall demand for employees across all aviation-related careers, there is a need for increased efficiency in employee training and safety. This proposed roundtable discussion will bring airport and airline professionals together to address current practices and future needs.  Topics may range from handling mobility devices to ramp safety. Discussion will focus on strategies to deliver training, format of training interventions, and recommendations regarding standards and measuring learning outcomes. This discussion may also highlight safety measures that are in place across the different careers represented. This interactive forum is an opportunity to share, learn, and collaboratively develop universally designed training and professional development practices that will facilitate the knowledge and skill of air personnel.

Time for a Reality Check: What Will It Take to Make Advanced Air Mobility Viable?

What does the business model look like for vertiport owners/operators, and what do these entities need from federal, state, and local governments? This session will provide a brief overview of the current state of AAM. By contrasting where the aviation infrastructure is from a system planning perspective, an outline of what is needed to accomplish industry goals will be discussed. Panelists representing stakeholders with differing perspectives on AAM will then debate the current and projected status, while developing a path toward needed solutions.

Rising to the Moment: Advanced Air Mobility Infrastructure Needs

AAM is moving rapidly from concept to reality. Despite early hurdles and uncertainties. Despite early hiccups in Europe, AAM innovators in North America, Asia, and the Middle East are progressing through regulatory certification processes, with high expectations for commencement of commercial operations in the United States by the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Concurrently, there’s been growing interest and concern by stakeholders, including airport operators, heliport/helipad operators, and local and state transportation agencies, about what infrastructure investments will be needed to serve these new aircraft effectively. In this session, we’ll discuss how the aviation industry’s understanding of AAM infrastructure needs has been evolving, the current state of vertiport design standards, and challenges that we still need to confront as an industry to rise to the moment that AAM operations begin in earnest.

Advanced Air Mobility Operations: Integration in the Airspace and Broader Transportation System

AAM introduces new vehicles along with new use cases into the air transportation and broader transportation system. This session explores current industry, government, and academic efforts to enable safe AAM operations and integration, with a focus on short- to mid-term time horizons (e.g., five to 15 years). Topics in this session include uncrewed aircraft systems traffic management, extensible traffic management, and FAA/NASA concept of operations implementations; airspace structure and management (e.g., exploring different airspace geometries); and advanced analytics, optimization, AI/ML for airspace operations and integration.

Review of Leading University Programs in Advanced Air Mobility

The continued and sustained development of AAM as a very reliable and ubiquitous form of transportation depends on preparing new generations of an AAM workforce through education, research, and training at universities. This session will review these requirements at four leading universities involved in AAM.  The review will emphasize academic and research programs, as well as training initiatives for public benefit. Session presenters and speakers will also discuss education and training programs as well as breakthroughs and promising discoveries from ongoing research work in AAM at their respective institutions and universities.

I, Airport Planner: Roles for Artificial Intelligence in Airport Planning and Design

The aviation community’s interest in AI has mostly been on applications either to facilitate administrative functions or enable more efficient airport operations and facility management. AI applications in the fields of airport planning and development have garnered less attention, but include forecast analyses; operational data analyses; alternatives development and evaluation; and facility design, prototyping, and refinement. In this session, we’ll examine the potential that AI has to facilitate and enhance airport planning and design, informed by case studies in which AI is being used by airport planners and designers. We will also discuss the potential pitfalls of using AI to facilitate airport planning & design will also be discussed.

Small Airport Path to Profitability

The session highlights how small airports (i.e. general aviation, non-hub, and small-hub) can create paths to profitability through creative use of land and maximized revenue from owned assets. The session will highlight recent ACRP research and examples on innovative finance and revenue generation.

The Impact of Autonomous Vehicles on Airports

There is considerable interest in both the media and technical press on the recent rapid development of autonomous driverless vehicles.  With the success of Waymo in multiple cities and operating at Phoenix Sky Harbor, the widespread use of AVs on airport roadways seems imminent. As Waymo, Zoox, and Tesla’s Robotaxi expand their test cities, they are likely to have significant impacts on airport operations and facilities’ design. Consequently, airports planning future development of these facilities should consider how the introduction of AVs would affect the need for and operation of these facilities. This session will discuss the current status of AV activity at airports and the potential consequences related to the use of AVs that airports should consider as they engage in long-range planning, such as developing master plans or passenger terminal development plans.

Changes and Opportunities in Aviation's Big Data

Operational data on airports, airlines, and airspace has taken a huge step forward in the past decade, with the availability of larger and richer data that enables a better understanding of how the aviation system functions. This session explores improvements in data availability and new applications enabled by these changes, including uses of ADS-B data for operational counts and activity modeling; upgrading U.S. Department of Transportation's O&D Data Bank 1A Ticket Dollar Value Database (e.g. DB1B 10% airline ticket sample to DB40 40% airline ticket sample with richer data); and system wide information management access and best practices.

Innovation in Geospatial and GIS Systems at Airports

This session will be focused on the use of geospatial data and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the innovative ways they are used throughout the aviation industry. There will be an update on the FAA’s Airport and Data Information Portal and updates that will be coming to the system in the near future. There will also be some sample use cases from airports, including a topic on Scan2BIM which showcases the translation of Revit asset data to ArcGIS Indoors, and the incorporation of these assets into an Asset Management system to support work order management.  This session will also address the importance of data governance related to maintaining BIM data and downstream data when new projects are commissioned.

The Impact of Commercial Space Transportation on Air Traffic and the Space Environment

This session will address the growing impact of commercial space transportation on traditional air traffic management and the long-term sustainability of the space environment. Discussions will cover the increasing frequency of commercial launches and reentries, the resulting airspace closures and their effects on airline schedules and costs, and technologies to minimize these disruptions. The session will also explore the escalating challenge of space debris and orbital congestion, including mitigation strategies and the need for improved space traffic management. Finally, presenters will examine the emergence of commercial human spaceflight and the evolving regulatory landscape and safety standards will be examined, highlighting the multifaceted challenges and opportunities presented by the burgeoning commercial space sector.

Agency and Access for All: Mobility Planning and Implementation for Passengers from Departure to Arrival

The Air Carrier Access Act prohibits airlines from discriminating against passengers with disabilities. But that is just the start to creating true agency and access to our aviation system. This session will address the not-so-stellar history of meeting the mobility needs for older persons and those with disabilities at airports and the implementations made by airlines from the past through the present to improve and learn first-hand from those who move through the aviation system differently.

Innovating Airport System Planning: Tools, Technologies, and Strategies for the Future

This session explores how state aviation agencies and planners are leveraging advanced technologies and data-driven tools to modernize airport system planning. Topics will include the integration of ADS-B and automated data collection, statewide NAVAID optimization, system rightsizing, and the deployment of interactive platforms for hangar rate analysis and AWOS siting. Attendees will also gain insight into funding restructuring, land use guidance, and workforce development initiatives that ensure long-term sustainability and performance across the airport system.

Lessons Learned from Large-scale Airport Infrastructure Projects

This session will focus on the research and industry-advancement obtained over the course of the implementation of large-scale airport infrastructure projects.  Presentations will identify the management challenges associated with each project and the maintenance of a continuous operating environment.  Above all, presentations will clearly identify lessons learned that are applicable to most other airports and contractors.

The Economic Justification for Business Aviation

When assessing the economic viability of business aviation, it is essential to consider the distinct perspectives of accountants and economists on the value of money and investment decisions. Accountants evaluate business aviation through direct expenses, depreciation, and tax implications. In contrast, economists take a broader approach, emphasizing opportunity costs, productivity gains, and long-term economic impact. This session will highlight how business aviation enhances corporate efficiency, market reach, and regional economic growth from both perspectives.

Latest Advances in Airfield Pavement Design and Evaluation

Updates on key programs and processes associated with airfield pavements will be discussed in this session including key changes incorporated in the latest FAARFIELD program; case studies showcasing International Civil Aviation Organization ACR/PCR applications; and uses of Uncrewed Aircraft Systems for airfield surveys to minimize operational impacts.