Available supervisors

Young woman standing in airport, looking out of window at plane

Dr Soufiane Boufous

Areas of research: road safety

Tel: +61 2 9385 6227
Email: soufiane@unsw.edu.au

Recent topics include, for example:

  • Reporting of aviation crashes in Australian newspapers

Suggested topics include:

  • Airline safety in the age of social media
  • The analysis of digital flight data to monitor the performance of flying students
  • Factors that contribute to pilot shortage in Australia
  • Data integration and aviation safety

Dr Carlo Caponecchia

Areas of research: human factors and safety

Tel: +61 2 9385 7184
Email: carloc@unsw.edu.au

Recent topics include, for example:

  • Investigating eye tracking technology as a tool to improve the visual scanning techniques of novice pilots

Suggested topics include:

  • Improving the accessibility of air travel for people with disability
  • Use and evaluation of international standards on safety management systems
  • Validation of selection tests for trainee pilots
  • Methods for providing feedback on trainee pilot visual scanning
  • Reliability and usability of methods for understanding complex systems and incidents (e.g., FRAM)
  • Safety management, practices and responsibilities for transnational operations
  • Aviation health and wellbeing: physical and mental health of crew and passengers
  • Improving Injury data classification and management

Dr Tay T.R. Koo

Areas of research: air transportation and freight services; human geography; commerce; management; tourism and services

Tel: +61 2 9385 6737
Email: t.koo@unsw.edu.au

Recent topics include, for example:

  • Modelling public acceptance of recreational and commercial remotely piloted aircraft in Sydney 
  • Development and validation of airport dependency indices
  • Exploratory study of the impact of significant ecotourism experience on voluntary carbon-offset behaviour of travellers

Suggested topics include:

  • Modelling sustainable air travel choices and practices by consumers of aviation
  • Commercial, recreational, research-based airborne drone management, policy, and governance
  • Research methods in air route development for stakeholders such as airports and tourism
  • Methods and tools for mapping spatial and temporal dynamics of the air transport-tourism system

Professor Brett Molesworth

Areas of research: human factors and aviation safety; pilot risk management; aviation (mis)communication; noise effects; pilot training and performance; cabin safety and passenger behaviour; human performance; remotely piloted aircraft

Tel: +61 2 9385 6757
Email: b.molesworth@unsw.edu.au

Recent topics include, for example:

  • Using EEG spectral components to assess the fatiguing effect of aircraft noise
  • Effect of tone of feedback on the performance of student pilots
  • Investigating predictors of risk in the general population and the pilot population
  • Pilot psychology: health and wellbeing

Suggested topics include:

  • Road safety: reducing young drivers’ speed behaviour
  • Aviation Safety: Reducing pilots’ miscommunication
  • Aviation Safety: Effect of visual and auditory feedback on student pilots’ learning outcome
  • Aviation Safety: Improving passengers’ recall of information presented in the pre-flight safety briefing
  • Road safety: training young novice drivers where to look to improve speed management
  • Aviation Safety: Understanding communication errors between pilots and air traffic control
  • Aviation Safety: Improving pilots risk management through cognitive integration training

Dr Mirjam Wiedemann

Areas of research: airports, drones, sustainable aviation, aerotropolis/airport city, regional economic development (including tourism strategies), aviation finance strategies and economics, aviation strategic management

Tel: +61 2 9348 1689
Email: m.wiedemann@unsw.edu.au

Recent topics include, for example:

  • Safety considerations of hydrogen refuelling stations in the airport environment
  • How to facilitate tacit knowledge spillover between companies in different industries in an Aerotropolis
  • Evaluating Air Transport Barriers to Tourism Development in Island States and How Air Service Subsidy Scheme Can Help to Overcome such Barriers – A Case Study: The Maldives North & South Regions

Suggested topics include:

  • Integration of advanced and sustainable aviation technologies into the airport master plan
  • Private-public-partnerships for a drone taxi public transport service
  • Aerotropolis successes and failures: factors, methods and tools
  • Drones for regional integration and prosperity
  • Economic development in airport regions
  • Airport and Region: Interfaces and stakeholders
  • Integration of hydrogen as a fuel in the airport environment and on the road
  • Electric flight infrastructure for airports and regions
  • Drone infrastructure for airports and regions
  • Cost-benefit analysis for new aviation technologies: drones, hydrogen and electric flight
  • Life cycle analysis for new aviation technologies: drones, hydrogen and electric flight

Associate Professor Richard CL Wu

Areas of research: airline management/performance

Tel: +61 2 9385 4191
Email: c.l.wu@unsw.edu.au

Recent topics include, for example:

  • The impact of personalised mobile marketing on passenger shopping behaviours in the airport terminal
  • Assessing the effect of textual and visual information presentation on the usability of airline web interface with eye-tracker and EEG
  • The impact of personalised mobile marketing on passenger shopping behaviours in the airport terminal
  • Understanding and predicting consumer behaviour based on an analysis of clickstream and frequent flyer data
  • Effects of enterprise bargaining and agreement clauses on operating cost of airline ground crew scheduling

Suggested topics include:

  • Data models on passenger movement patterns in an airport terminal
  • Visual attention of passengers in airport retail shops
  • Air passenger retail purchase modelling and airport terminal space design
  • Reinforcement learning models in airline scheduling