PI: Alexander Jacquillat, Heinz College
Co-PI(s): Ari Lightman, Heinz College and BeiBei Li, Heinz College

The Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) is the second busiest airport in Pennsylvania and serves over 500,000 travelers each month. Over recent years, PIT has started to deploy information technologies to better monitor and serve its customers. The objective of this project is to develop a holistic approach to the acquisition and analysis of passenger flow data, and their integration into decision­-making tools for improved operations and customer experience. Specifically, it will focus on one specific passenger segment: passengers needing special assistance when travelling (e.g., passenger with physical disabilities). This builds upon work done in a Capstone project class in the spring of 2016. It will follow a three­-step process around (i) the deployment of technologies for systematic acquisition of spatial-­temporal data, (ii) the optimization of resource allocation to best serve passengers requiring special assistance, and (iii) field testing to calibrate, validate and assess the decision-­making support tools that will be developed. It will result in a systematic approach to allocate available resources to passengers. The ultimate impact will be optimized routes, better asset management, and digital processes to move these passengers efficiently from origin to destination.