Is this project an undergraduate, graduate, or faculty project?

Graduate

Project Type

group

Campus

Daytona Beach

Authors' Class Standing

Jadia Ewing, Graduate student Alexander Van Baelan, Graduate student Conrad Prisby, Graduate student Rafal Smietana , Graduate student

Lead Presenter's Name

Jadia Ewing

Lead Presenter's College

DB College of Arts and Sciences

Faculty Mentor Name

Dr. Gamage Dumindu Samaraweera

Abstract

Air traffic congestion is an increasingly important factor in aviation safety as global flight activity continues to grow. This project investigates whether higher traffic density is associated with an increased risk of aviation incidents and identifies key contributing factors. Using publicly available flight (ADS-B) and incident (NTSB) data, we apply several machine learning models to analyze traffic patterns and predict risk. We begin with logistic regression to evaluate the relationship between density and incident probability, followed by decision trees to extract interpretable rules describing high-risk conditions. K-nearest neighbors (KNN) is used to examine similarity in traffic patterns among incident flights, while support vector machines (SVM) capture more complex relationships. Ensemble methods, including random forests and boosting, are applied to improve performance, with SHAP analysis used to interpret feature importance. Since incidents are rare, we prioritize recall and F1-score to better detect high-risk scenarios.

Did this research project receive funding support (Spark, SURF, Research Abroad, Student Internal Grants, Collaborative, Climbing, or Ignite Grants) from the Office of Undergraduate Research?

No

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Modeling Aircraft Collision Risk Using Machine Learning and Traffic Density Data AC

Air traffic congestion is an increasingly important factor in aviation safety as global flight activity continues to grow. This project investigates whether higher traffic density is associated with an increased risk of aviation incidents and identifies key contributing factors. Using publicly available flight (ADS-B) and incident (NTSB) data, we apply several machine learning models to analyze traffic patterns and predict risk. We begin with logistic regression to evaluate the relationship between density and incident probability, followed by decision trees to extract interpretable rules describing high-risk conditions. K-nearest neighbors (KNN) is used to examine similarity in traffic patterns among incident flights, while support vector machines (SVM) capture more complex relationships. Ensemble methods, including random forests and boosting, are applied to improve performance, with SHAP analysis used to interpret feature importance. Since incidents are rare, we prioritize recall and F1-score to better detect high-risk scenarios.

 

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