A driving factor for me is having a real impact in terms of what I can see tomorrow. Our efforts will directly impact controllers and improve safety within the FAA. We’re going to see the impact right away because we’re working on real operational issues.
With a degree in mechanical aerospace engineering and an MBA, Bhavik is well-suited to be leading a team at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). He’s grown from being an individual contributor to leading technical solutions and projects. As a Project Lead for the FAA, Bhavik and his team are solving the problem of where drones can safely fly.
High-level analysis at 35,000 feet. My team owns it.
My team is responsible for determining where drones can fly. We’re seeing an abundance of drones flying in the airspace and it poses an inherent safety risk to manned aircraft that are already flying. We take data and review where manned aircraft and drones are flying. And then we figure out where they should fly using big data, machine learning, and other data techniques we have within GDIT.
The FAA came to us because there are about 800 airports in the U.S. and the altitude and locations where drones can fly aren’t standardized. So we came in and said, let’s use data to figure this out. We’ve been using expertise within GDIT to come up with a solution that will help the FAA improve the safety of the airspace.
Collaborating to deliver a better solution.
My team is mostly engineers and our past work was with smaller data sets. When the FAA asked us to solve this problem for 800 airports, we knew we needed a broader skill set. I put a message on our internal chat and asked if anyone in the organization had the data and analytics skills needed to solve this problem.
And in no time, the Director of Data and Analytics responded and said his group could help. We merged my team’s aviation expertise with the data and analytics team’s expertise to build a solution. We didn’t expect the other team to not only tell us how to do it, but show us how, and help train our team to solve big data problems in the future. We’ve done something we never thought we could do and through the process we’ve become a better team.
Feeling supported with any idea.
Personally, I’ve been supported by a number of leaders who have helped champion my ideas. They’ve been there to help guide me as my career has evolved. After seeing how beneficial it was to collaborate within GDIT on the drone project, I had an idea for collaborating with another General Dynamics business unit. I’ve been able to pitch my idea to them on another FAA solution and we’re going to be able to deliver even better work to the customer because of it.