CAPT . RONISHA CARTER , U . S . AIR FORCE : C-17 SCHEDULING
USAF-MIT AI ACCELERATOR
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CAPT . RONISHA CARTER , U . S . AIR FORCE : C-17 SCHEDULING
Having enlisted in the Air Force directly out of high school , Capt . Ronisha Carter started off in the field of server maintenance and boundary protection , before becoming an officer and receiving a Master ’ s in Computer Engineering . “ I was selected for an Education with Industry fellowship at VMware , where I was able to work within an Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning development team ,” she says . “ It was at this time when I developed a foundation in artificial intelligence and machine learning .”
Her current role is as a Cyberspace Warfare Operations officer . “ My career field covers the entire communications spectrum ,” says Carter . “ Everything from network defense to base communications structures , to tactical communications . This background along with my AI foundation led me to be one of 11 selected to collaborate with MIT on the integration of artificial intelligence technology into Air Force platforms .”
Under Carter ’ s remit falls the C-17 scheduling project , with the intention of bettering the lives of pilots and airmen using AI to make the process of scheduling less time consuming while increasing efficiency and minimizing errors . “ Creating an Air Force flight schedule today , the scheduler has to account for a multitude of variables we identify as constraints . This includes qualifications or the training a pilot requires for that seat and crew rest – the time they must take off in between each flight . Also the amount of flights that need to be scheduled , and the time intervals between those flights . This process is currently being accomplished through various manual channels . Separate data systems , phone calls , and even whiteboards , which causes scheduling to be immensely complex and time consuming .”
The remedy to that involves using AI to take up the burden . “ What we hope to achieve is to create a data driven
DECEMBER 2020