Researchers have a better way to predict flight delays
The most dreaded announcement for any airline passenger trying to get home for the holidays has to be a flight delay. Researchers at Binghamton University, State University New York have devised a new computer model that can more accurately predict delays faster than anything currently in use.
“our proposed method is better suited to analyze datasets with categorical variables(qualitative variables such as weather or security risks instead of numerical ones) related flight delays. We have shown that it can outperform traditional networks in terms of accuracy and training time (speed)," said Sina lead author of the stud and a PhD candidate in systems science Thomas J. Watson School of Engineer within the and Applied Science at Binghamton University
currently, flight delays are predicted by artificial neural network(ANN) computer model that are backfilled with delay data from previous flights. An ANN is an interconnected group of computerized nodes that work together to analyze a variety of variables to estimate an outcome in this case flight delays much like the way a network of neurons in a brain works to solve a problem. These networks are self-learning and can be trained to look for patterns. The more variables an ANN has to process, the more categorical those variable, and collecting historical data slows down an ANN to make flight delay predictions.