Paola Amaldi-Trillo

SFC Software Forensics Centre

Reading Room

Paola's main interest area is automation in complex socio-technical system. While the declared purposes for introducing automation are to increase safety and productivity, understanding how practitioners achieve their objectives in the current environment is fundamental. Consequences linked to introducing automation have to be anticipated if "automation surprises" have to be prevented. It is only through modelling how people share knowledge and other resources that we can develop hypothesis about the impact of automation and thus what requirements the system should meet. A long-term research interest is activity modelling through direct observation of practitioners in "natural" and simulated environments, interviewing practitioners through the use of scenarios, and during routine operations. I have been particularly concerned with modelling decision making and diagnostic processes (Amaldi, 1993; .Amaldi, Barale, & Di Rienzo, 2000)

A related area is validation of advanced automated tools. What type of evidence do we need to support the finding that the tool is validated? Checking that requirements are met is definitely an important step. This, however raises the issue of how requirements are gathered and later validated. Requirement gathering implies not only drawing up a list of desiderata but also generating an initial activity model of the target population (Amaldi, Wilson, 2002). Without such an activity modelling, requirements cannot be validated as it would be impossible to justify designers' choice and individual variability, among other things. Complex tools cannot be validated just by looking for metrics to measure "productivity" and "safety". A more systemic approach should be considered where the tool is assessed in the context of the activities concerned by the tool (Amaldi, & Cellier, 1998).

The main application domain is automation issues in Civil Aviation. For over ten years I have collaborated with National Research and Development Centers for designing and testing new technology for air traffic controllers and commercial airline pilots. Thus I have worked for the Federal Aviation Administration in the USA, for the Centre d'Etude de la Navigation Aerienne in France, for the Italian National Agency for Air Traffic Control (ENAV). Actually I am involved in a project, called Fast Prototype, concerned with the development of a radar control station for airport tower air traffic controllers. We are implementing ethnographic approach to the study of how expert practitioners share available resources to make the environment productive and safe, in spite of the several opportunities to generate "system breakdowns".