We’re starting the second week of the 2020 Aviation Weather Testbed Summer Experiment today (8/10/2020). Just like last week, this week’s activities will be conducted 100% virtually. Nearly all of the AWT and FAA AWDE staff members are working from home, and most of our participants are either working from home or are considered essential employees who must report to their worksites. So far, we’ve noticed a few unexpected benefits as well as a few unexpected challenges with this year’s virtual format.
One of the unexpected benefits has been more flexibility for our participants. They’re able to evaluate an experimental aviation product without physically traveling to Kansas City, MO to spend a week in the testbed. This is possible thanks to the Aviation Weather Center's Testbed page, which can be used to stage and evaluate experimental products under password protection. This also allows our participants to utilize the product during their regular work hours, which may yield a fuller picture of how it could be incorporated into their existing workflows.
Of course the virtual realm also introduces a few nuances that we've had to work though. Typically testbed activities would not be affected much by a tropical storm in the Atlantic Ocean. However, this year our AWDE team was directly impacted by this storm with some losing power due to the strong winds. Quick improvising allowed the interviews to continue, and we're grateful that our AWDE friends are safe.
After this evaluation concludes at the end of the week, we'll be taking a closer look at the benefits and drawbacks of a virtual format. The hope is that we can continue to utilize virtual capabilities moving forward even when we resume in-person testbed activities in the future.
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