French National School of Civil Aviation and AIRBUS Launch Safety Management Chair

Dec. 12, 2018
The objective is to address the new safety issues raised by the evolution of the global aviation landscape and by the increasing digitalization of this domain. It is headed by Corinne Bieder, Head of ENAC's "Safety and Security" research program

ENAC - 2018, Olivier Chansou, President of l'ENAC, Yannick Malinge, Airbus Senior Vice-President and Chief Product Safety Officer and Eric Francois, Président of ENAC Foundation have launched the "ENAC - AIRBUS Safety Management chair", through the ENAC Foundation.

The objective of this chair is to address the new safety issues raised by the evolution of the global aviation landscape and by the increasing digitalization of this domain. It is headed by Corinne Bieder, Head of ENAC's "Safety and Security" research programme.

Understanding complex systems and heterogeneous contexts to better support safety

Today's commercial aviation is a complex, multi-stakeholder domain with significant heterogeneity in terms of economic, social and political contexts depending on the countries and geographical areas concerned. As an illustration, Airbus aircraft are operated by around 500 airlines around the world. 

The first research field of the chair aims to investigate methodological approaches and develop guidance to understand and analyze these different contexts in their different dimensions (culture, air traffic development, infrastructure, economy, sociology, etc.). This characterization will make it possible to define the most appropriate ways to improve safety practices together with local stakeholders.

Text Mining to address safety issues 

Text Mining is a field of Artificial Intelligence specialized in "data mining", in this case, textual data.

For a manufacturer such as Airbus, the safety data reported by air operators are essentially event reports - with or without all essential facts, and without homogeneity across all reports in terms of ways of reporting/describing events - written in free text. With the growth of air traffic, the number of reports is increasing, with heterogeneous content types and quality levels.

The second research field of the Chair will aim to develop an approach and tools for to process and analyze unstructured textual data, in natural language and on a large scale, in order to derive insights on safety.

About :

Corinne Bieder, Head of ENAC's Safety-Security research programme, her professional background has led her to approach safety in various high-risk areas (aeronautics, nuclear, hospitals, etc.) and from a systemic perspective, considering technical, human and organizational aspects. She is a member of an international Think Tank on safety issues, NeTWork, and of the scientific group for strategic analysis of the FonCSI (Foundation for a culture of industrial safety).

École Nationale de l'Aviation Civile (ENAC), the school of the Direction Générale de l'Aviation Civile (Civil Aviation Authority, or DGAC) under the supervision of the French Ministry of Ecological and Solidarity Transition, combines education and research in aeronautical engineering, air navigation and aircraft piloting.

Every year ENAC admits over 2000 students who are enrolled in more than 30 programmes of study, and 3500 trainees enrolled in continuing education programmes. 

ENAC's 24,000 graduates can be found in some 100 different countries on all 5 continents - proof of the school's international influence. Its scale and its human and pedagogical resources make ENAC the leading European school of aeronautics today.

For more information, visit: www.enac.fr.

ENAC Foundation, since the end of 2012, the ENAC Foundation, a dedicated legal structure created by ENAC, has been a real asset for the school, as its areas of development aim to : strengthen the international appeal of ENAC, allow for the insertion of all talents without discrimination, develop research and innovation. A tool for promoting and valuing ENAC's knowledge, the purpose of the ENAC Foundation is therefore to offer innovative projects, outside of the sphere of actions specific to the school by bringing together new funding based on the philanthropy of individuals and companies.