Jeff Grubb

      After graduating from DU, I took a commission in the U.S. Navy and now serve as a Naval Aerospace Experimental Psychologist (AEP).  Broadly, AEP’s assist the fleet by managing the Aviation Selection Test Battery, developing better techniques to train aircrews, performing human factors analyses of aircraft systems, and conducting basic research on how people perform in aerospace environments.  Following 5 weeks of Officer Indoctrination School in New Port, RI, I reported to NAS Pensacola, FL for the Aeromedical Officer’s Course.  In addition to course work on physiological issues in aviation, I completed Aviation Preflight Indoctrination and flew the T-34C Turbomentor and TH-57 SeaRanger training aircraft.  Having completed training, I am now assigned to Naval Air Systems Command at NAS Patuxent River, MD, where I work on two projects.  In one, I help monitor and evaluate the development of cockpit systems for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.  In the other, I am using a variety of physiological and neuroimaging techniques to predict aircrews’ attentional capacity and mental workload in real time.  The ultimate goal of this project is to develop a system that can modulate cockpit automation and change the way that information is presented to the crew based on the crew’s current cognitive capability.  Such a system would reduce both boredom and cognitive overload, two psychological states that lead to aviation mishaps.