□ Icarus

Icarus is a computerized system designed to allow candidate pilots to take their theoretical examination that is required to obtain a pilot license.

Icarus is currently in use at the Belgian Civil Aviation Administration since September 2004, and is used to take theoretical examinations for all the JAR and National licenses.

It is a complete solution with the following functionalities:

Question database

Icarus can be fed with a set of questions (including one or more optional appendices) that need to be used for the theoretical examinations.
Questions are organized into chapters, which, depending on the particular needs and organization, may have an infinite number of levels.
The system has been built to ease the integration with Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) databases as well as national ones.

The system can also receive the definition of the various license types along with their rules, such as:

the maximum duration of the procedure,

the maximum number of sessions and their duration,

the subjects composition for each license, including the number of questions to pick, the list of chapters being covered, etc.

Complete candidate management

Each candidate along with their current and past licenses, previous results are kept in the system's database.
Because the system knows about the various license types and their rules (expiration dates, etc.), it can monitor the status of each candidate and send them expiration reminders, missing reservation payments, etc.

Agenda and reservations

Icarus maintains an agenda of all the reservations that have been made and provides an intuitive view over the agenda on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
The agenda is also used during the process of creating new reservations or modifying existing ones: given a desired date, Icarus can propose multiple possible reservations for a given candidate and its license (picture). If the propositions are not acceptable, they can be modified to suit the particular needs. The system always ensures that the reservation request matches the availabilities of the agenda and that there will be a seat for the candidate on the examination day.
If the reservation is possible, it is booked and a notification is either emailed to the candidate or printed on paper and sent over mail.

Automatic candidate registration

The day of the examination, the candidate is expected at the examination center. Once arrived, the first step is to register with the system at the Kiosk, which informs Icarus that the candidate has arrived. The examination is then generated and placed in the waiting queue.
The candidate then waits for his/her turn. A display (see ESD picture) located in the waiting room indicates in real time when it is time for the candidate to enter the examination room and start the test.

Dynamic examinations

The examination is composed of a certain number of subjects. Each subject is given a maximum time during which the candidate must answer all questions.
The series of questions are generated at random by the system based on selection rules that have been implemented in Icarus: maximum number of questions, question exclusion sets, weight attached to each question, etc.
The candidate interacts with the system through an intuitive and easy to use interface. A short introduction first explains the process and the rules of the examination. Then the test starts with the first subject. The candidate is allowed to freely navigate through all the questions during the given maximum time. Each question is answered by clicking one of the multiple possible answers.
Once the candidate is satisfied with the answers he/she can terminate the current subject and continue with the next one, or finish the examination if this was the last subject. The system continuously monitors the time and will terminate the subject when the time that was given runs out.

Examination results available directly

At the end of the examination, the candidate can return to the Kiosk to print the results document, which contains the score obtained during the examination (picture).