By Courtney Gilmartin May 12, 2009

Three University of Central Florida professors will take their expertise in teamwork and decision-making out of this world -- and into space.

Eduardo Salas, Kimberly Smith-Jentsch and Stephen Fiore have been awarded a NASA grant supporting research on the health and performance of astronauts during space exploration missions. The findings of their three-year, $1.2 million grant will help astronauts traveling to Mars on a mission planned for 2030.

With the journeys to and from Mars each taking about 18 months, Salas said the team of astronauts will have to get along to effectively deal with the complex tasks they’ll face.

“The team has to be cohesive,” said Salas, a Psychology professor and the Human Systems Integration Research program director at UCF’s Institute for Simulation & Training (IST). “Our goal is to create a scientifically rooted set of tools so that astronauts can monitor their team cohesion and teamwork while they’re on a mission.”

Smith-Jentsch is an associate professor of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, and Stephen Fiore is an assistant professor of Cognitive Sciences in the Philosophy Department and director of the Cognitive Sciences Laboratory at IST.

The UCF research proposal was one of a dozen selected out of 54 by NASA and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI). In total, the grants are worth about $16 million. 

UCF holds an international reputation as the world’s leader in team training, Salas said, and previous experience in the health care, aviation and defense industries – all complex, stressful environments -- helped the team win this grant.

Much of this study will build on prior Navy research by Smith-Jentsch and Salas in the area of guided team self-correction, an instructional strategy that “helps team members help themselves” by systematically discussing their performance and developing new and improved ways to work together.

Smith-Jentsch previously was a senior research psychologist at NAVAIR Orlando for nine years. Salas previously served as a senior research psychologist and head of the Training Technology Development Branch of NAVAIR Orlando for 15 years.

“The idea behind guided team self-correction is that teams can be trained to critique and continuously improve their own teamwork processes,” Smith-Jentsch said, adding that her prior Navy research helped to enhance the performance of submarine teams that work in close quarters for long periods of time.

Since coming to UCF in 1999, Salas has earned more than $20 million in research grants. In 2008, he was named a UCF Pegasus Professor, the university’s top faculty honor recognizing sustained excellence in teaching, research and service.

Prior to joining the UCF faculty in 2003, Smith-Jentsch led Navy research programs on team performance, simulation-based training and assessment, and mentoring. At UCF, she has continued to focus on those areas and has worked on projects funded by more than $4 million from Workforce Florida, the Office of Naval Research and NASA.

Fiore has helped to bring more than $10 million in research funding to UCF from organizations such as the National Science Foundation, the Transportation Security Administration, the Office of Naval Research and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. He studies learning and performance among individuals and teams.