Teen pilot develops AI tool to help other aviators navigate safely

KPIX

By Max Darrow

Click here for updates on this story

    SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) — A Bay Area teen pilot has come up with a new AI tool to prevent dangerous situations in the air, for pilots who are not getting a lot of help on the ground.

There is a lot that fuels humans’ fascination with flight. For Mizan Rupan-Tompkins, that fascination stems from a feeling.

“Almost being on top of the world and being able to see everything from a different perspective,” he said.

And, from science.

“The science of how planes take off and all of the principles of aerodynamics,” he said.

Rupan-Tompkins is a young pilot with a background in computer science and AI. He says he’s developed an AI tool called “Stratus” that will make aviation safer. The idea stemmed from his own in-flight experiences.

“I personally came across multiple near mid-air collisions,” he said. “That was one of my main inspirations where I do not want any other pilot to experience something I felt.”

And as it stands right now?

“Currently with airports, there is barely any AI integration,” he said. “So, I feel like just making a small step in improving safety and safety nets can help a lot.”

Stratus is a real-time, autonomous co-pilot system that uses AI to listen to and understand pilot communications and flag abnormalities before they become dangerous, primarily in situations where there is no air traffic controller.

He said while major airports have dedicated air traffic control, 85% of airports throughout the country are either low-resourced or totally un-towered.

“Uncontrolled means there’s actually no one who has jurisdiction over your communications – it’s kind of freeform,” he said. “You speak over what’s called a CTAF, a Common Traffic Advisory Frequency, and you announce your decisions to everyone on this frequency.”

Most of the regional airports in the Bay Area are towered. However, there are some that are not or have limited resources.

“There are airports such as Half Moon Bay or Byron, which are in the Bay Area, which are non-towered airports,” Rupan-Tompkins said. “Airports such as Hayward or Reid-Hillview, after hours, they do become un-towered.”

Scott Miller, a commercial airline pilot, aviation lecturer at San Jose State University, and flight instructor, is enthusiastic about Rupan-Tompkins’ idea upon first look.

“I think there’s a huge use for that. I think he’s really onto something with this,” Miller told CBS News Bay Area. “I never contemplated having AI monitor uncontrolled fields and be able to actually activate a response. Beautiful.”

He said there is already a very high level of safety in aviation. Looking bigger picture, he says the FAA is about to begin the process of modernizing its air traffic control system.

Congress recently greenlit $12.5 billion to help with that process.

“Safety is always the number one priority and will remain so. But, we’ve reached a limit with what our current systems will allow the amount of operations to be conducted safely,” Miller said. “What the advanced systems and modernized systems will do, is allow us to expand the amount of air traffic that we’re moving safely.”

Rupan-Tompkins said his AI tool is not meant to replace controllers, but rather, to aid them and support pilots in places where they don’t exist.

“You don’t want ChatGPT controlling all of the aircrafts in the air. I’m building something not to replace the controller but rather, aid them,” he said. “This is not powered by large language models but rather, statistical machine learning models that are based on historic flight training data.”

The young innovator is hopeful his technology takes off and makes the skies safer, one flight at a time.

“Even if it’s like a 1% or 2% increase in safety, it can help out and go a long way,” he said. “I’m currently in talks with airports. Our goal within the next month is to have this technology spread out across 10 airports in the Bay Area.”

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.