Boeing

Boeing subsidiary Preston Aviation Solutions and the University of California, Berkeley's NEXTOR (National Center of Excellence for Aviation Operations Research) program announced today that they have formed a strategic relationship that will benefit both Preston's customers and the university's program participants. Preston is known in the industry for its state-of-the-art, fast-time simulation product, TAAM (Total Airspace and Airport Modeler). As a result of this new relationship, full TAAM simulation will be incorporated into the university course curriculum for aviation research.

NEXTOR was established in 1996 by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration as a unique mechanism to support collaborative research in aviation among four universities and more than 20 public- and private-sector organizations.

"We are pleased that TAAM can now benefit the NEXTOR program," said John Lord, chief operating officer of Preston. "The considerable aviation experience of our two organizations, combined with the worldwide reach of Boeing, will assist us in meeting the needs of many other research customers in the U.S. and around the world."

Preston provides leading simulation, decision support, and scheduling systems for the global aviation industry. As developers of state-of-the-art aviation management software, Preston uses advanced optimization and visualization technology to help customers increase operational efficiency, capacity and safety. Headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, the company also maintains offices in Washington D.C., Atlanta and London.

The NEXTOR research program is part of the Institute of Transportation Studies curriculum offered at the University of California, Berkeley campus. The aviation program advances the state of the art in modeling complex airport and air traffic management systems, and develops better databases, metrics and techniques for monitoring and assessing national airspace system performance.

Dr. Mark Hansen, co-director of NEXTOR is excited about integrating TAAM into the curriculum at UC Berkeley. "Students will benefit by participating in the development of the rapid technological advances sweeping through the aviation community. By using TAAM daily, they not only will become proficient with the specific software, but also will learn fundamental concepts about how large, complicated transportation systems can be analyzed and simulated. Students who complete the program will have an extremely marketable skill set as well as a fundamental understanding of transportation operations."