Grant Funds Development of System Designed to Improve Aerospace Safety by More Accurately Identifying Human Factors Contributing to Mishaps

OPTIMUS Corporation, a leader in public safety technology, today
announced that OPTIMUS – with support from Richard Blomberg, President
of Dunlap and Associates and former Chair of the NASA Aerospace Safety
Advisory Panel, along with the City College of New York (CCNY) – has
been awarded a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant by NASA
to develop a system for improving aerospace safety. Specifically, the
grant funds the development of a comprehensive data mining system to
identify subtle human factors underlying aerospace mishaps.

Aerospace operations are characterized by the collection of
massive amounts of information and some of the data is specifically
focused on human factors. When a mishap occurs, it is necessary to
identify contributing human factors, and trace them back to the root
cause. This forms the basis for effective interventions to prevent a
recurrence of the mishap. At present, this process involves trained
analysts interacting with each data source individually and then
synthesizing the results into a coherent picture. Because each source
must be dealt with separately, the task can be daunting, and, as a
result, some analyses are not as comprehensive as possible. In
addition, due to this complexity the analyses for major accidents
address the full range of data while those for less severe events tend
to only address a subset. However, a less severe accident may be a
warning of an unrecognized process flaw that unless remedied will
eventually cause a catastrophic accident.

A primary objective of this research is to allow the same
comprehensive human factors analysis to bear on all mishaps by
developing an easy to use data mining technique that can integrate
information from a wide range of sources into one common analysis.

This SBIR grant is particularly relevant for OPTIMUS, which was
officially launched in 1992 when the Company was awarded an SBIR grant
to develop a wireless inspection system for NASA that is still used
for rocket launches today, and which was nominated for the 2002 NASA
Innovation Award.

“This NASA SBIR award is extremely exciting for OPTIMUS as a
company with such strong NASA roots and commitment to public safety,”
according to Eric Adolphe, President and CEO of OPTIMUS Corporation.
“With this technology, NASA will be able to more easily and
completely, gather and analyze aerospace incident data to automate the
determination of human factor issues contributing to an unsafe
operational environment. This will help ensure that today’s incidents
prevent tomorrow’s tragedies.”

About OPTIMUS Corporation

OPTIMUS Corporation enhances public safety and quality of life
through innovative, customer driven solutions. OPTIMUS products and
services increase efficiency, reduce transaction costs and help
minimize risk – enabling governments and organizations to
significantly improve service delivery. Since 1992, OPTIMUS has been
working to strengthen our nation’s vital infrastructure, with award
winning products and services in mission critical environments for
numerous federal and civilian agencies, and many state and local
governments. OPTIMUS is highly committed to quality in every aspect of
its business, evidenced by its multiple industry recognitions,
including the 2003 National Capital Business Ethics Award. OPTIMUS
delivers proven results through lasting technology partnerships
founded on integrity. For more information, visit www.optimuscorp.com.