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What Does Astrophysics Have to Do With Airplanes?

Tracy Staedter chats with Jason Steffen, an astrophysicist who came up with a better, more efficient way to board an airplane.

Jason Steffen

Steffen brooded over a frustrating airport experience for more than 18 months, then decided to do something about it.

When Jason Steffen tested the last-to-first board model against randomly ordered seating, he didn't see much of a difference in the total time it took to board the plane. Read the news story here about his proposed method for boarding a plane.

12:06 PM imtracynotstacy: Hello

jasonhsteffen: Hi

imtracynotstacy: Looks like it's working.

jasonhsteffen: For the time being at least. I should be able to find a way to break it.

imtracynotstacy: Ha!

Ok, I'll start with easy questions first.

12:07 PM What's your title?

jasonhsteffen: I'm the Brinson Postdoctoral Fellow at the Fermilab Center for Particle Astrophysics.

imtracynotstacy: And where are you writing from at this moment? Home? Office? Lab?

jasonhsteffen: I'm in my office at the laboratory.Well, it's a cubicle, I'm not important enough to get a real office.

imtracynotstacy: I was just going to ask if you had a window and if so, what was your view?

12:09 PM jasonhsteffen: I'm on the 7th floor and I have a window that faces "lab west" which is really northwest. It overlooks the prairie and Kirk road.

The building is about a mile from the nearest public road. imtracynotstacy: So you're in the boonies? Illinois, right?

12:11 PM jasonhsteffen: Well, it was the boonies back in the day. It's now in central suburbia. The suburbs go west from here for another 10 miles or so (out where I live). imtracynotstacy: Ok. And how would you describe your area of research to the average suburbanite....or any layperson for that matter.

12:14 PM jasonhsteffen: Unfortunately, I have a mixed bag of tricks. I'm a scientist on NASA's Kepler mission (scheduled for launch in March). That is a mission to find planets that orbit other stars. However, Fermilab doesn't do planets, so that is something on the side. I also work on some experiments to detect dark matter (axion dark matter in particular). Those experiments are more in line with the mission of the laboratory. imtracynotstacy: So how (why?) does a particle physicist write an algorithm about efficient airplane boarding?

12:17 PM jasonhsteffen: When I get stressed I find that starting a new project seems to relieve that stress, for a brief period of time. This was an episode where I had been thinking about the problem for about 18 months. My list of things to do was sufficiently long that I decided I either needed to get the airplane question completely out of my mind or to find the answer. It was a way to clear up some of the clutter, at least initially. It became much more interesting than I anticipated.

12:19 PM The how, I guess is that physicists get paid to write algorithms to optimize things. The hard part was coming up with a good way to model the airplane. Once I had that, the routine to optimize it was fairly straightforward... it's something that I'd used before for a different project. imtracynotstacy: Can you give me a little background on how you came up with the idea to do this in the first place?

12:22 PM jasonhsteffen: I was living in Seattle, and it always seemed as though each trip to the airport could be described as "hurry up and wait". By the time I made it into the jetway I was a bit... frustrated by the events of the early, early morning. That was the spark that set me off. I brooded over it for the 18 months before I decided to do something about it. Originally, I just wanted to know the answer. After I sent it to some friends, they encouraged me to put it into print. imtracynotstacy: It's great that you took action! Do you think any airlines will take your advice?

12:25 PM jasonhsteffen: It appears as though they have other priorities. They may "look into it", but if the boarding time was really that important, they would charge for carry-on bags instead of checked bags.

imtracynotstacy: Good point.

12:28 PM jasonhsteffen: I know that there was some criticism that my model was too simple. But, my counter argument is that if the model is too complicated (e.g. you worry too much about the outlier passengers that mess things up) then you miss the insight. You can't separate the contributing factors correctly. I'm pretty confident that my approach is the right answer. It seems to be very robust to what I throw at it.

imtracynotstacy: Excellent. So how long have you worked as a researcher?

12:30 PM jasonhsteffen: I just got out of graduate school in 2006. I think that my scientific research career is probably about 6 years old now. It depends on what you count as research I guess. I used to work for a defense contractor in Salt Lake City as a software engineer.

We did the communication systems for the predator spy planes. imtracynotstacy: It does sound like you have a varied background. What have been the advantages of that background so far in your career?

12:34 PM jasonhsteffen: It makes me hard to pigeon hole for one thing. That is both good and bad---unique is probably the best term. One thing that the varied background helps with is that it gives me a different viewpoint when it comes to certain projects. Often people at the cutting edge of one field need to reinvent the wheel all the time because they aren't familiar with what it happening in a different field. Since I've had exposure to several fields, I know a bit more about what questions are interesting and what tools are available. imtracynotstacy: What's a typical day for you? Or maybe, what's your normal routine?

jasonhsteffen: Shovel snow... lots of it

12:39 PM I come in to the lab (I bring my two sons with me to the daycare center two days a week). I then spend most of my day in front of a computer making calculations and writing things. It was a... revelation that my product is actually literature, that's what I'm supposed to do as a scientist. Once we get an experiment designed, then a day would likely include futzing around with the parts to get the apparatus put together. Then you babysit the experiment for a month or two (or longer) to get your data. Then, its back to calculations and writing. The whole circle of life takes between one and five years typically.

imtracynotstacy: Great insight!

What do you usually eat for lunch?

12:40 PM jasonhsteffen: I eat at the cafeteria here at the laboratory. I also eat about 3 hamburgers a week due to my extracurricular activities among which I travel. I often stick with the mexican or asian foods.

imtracynotstacy: What's the most unusual thing on your desk?

12:42 PM jasonhsteffen: I can't really see my desk for all the piles of papers. But, I have a medal that my 3-year-old son gave me. It came out of a package from the party store and he would give them to... well, everyone that came into the house until we ran out. I was one of the lucky ones.

I got more than one.

imtracynotstacy: Cute! What research questions still baffle you?

12:44 PM jasonhsteffen: Is the Universe really holographic? That's the one that I think about most. I didn't mention earlier, but I also do research in gravitation---testing theories of gravity.

12:46 PM The idea is that all of the information in three-dimensional space can be encoded on a surface that bounds the space. If that is the case, you really only need two dimensions in order to describe everything that we see---like a hologram. This would affect certain theories of gravity. imtracynotstacy: Wow. I'm baffled. Here's a less baffling question: Do you listen to music during the day? If so, what music?

12:50 PM jasonhsteffen: In the car I listen to books on tape. I'm particularly interested in military history (I have a brother who is a Major in the army). Otherwise, I frequently listen to classical music with my kids---they are big fans of Little Einstein's. I've played percussion instruments for about 20 years so I also listen to several genres provided that either the music is unique or that there is a good drummer. Some examples include: Rush, Midnight Oil, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. I also really like Drum Corps (marching percussion and brass). imtracynotstacy: Interesting....okay, last question: What do you do in your free time? What hobbies, if any, do you have?

12:54 PM jasonhsteffen: Currently, I moonlight so that I can pay my property taxes. If I had some extra time I would first spend more time with my family. If I then had extra extra time, I would really enjoy either playing in a band or teaching marching percussion. imtracynotstacy: great! thanks so much for your time. It was fun chatting with you and getting some insight into you as a person, outside your research!

jasonhsteffen: Thank you for your interest. It's been a pleasure. imtracynotstacy: have a nice day.

jasonhsteffen: Thanks.

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What Does Astrophysics Have to Do With Airplanes?

Jason Steffen

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