ACS aSCSa & Australian National University Course: Introduction to System Safety

aSCSa is a National Special Interest Group of the Australian Computer Society

For the 6th consecutive year, the Australian Safety Critical Systems Association (aSCSa) in conjunction the Australian National University will be running the highly successful Introduction to System Safety developed and delivered by the University of York.

This five day introductory University of York course is offered as graduate coursework by the ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science and to industry through the aSCSa.

Prerequisite knowledge
There are no prerequisites for this course. An introductory book such as Aircraft System Safety (Kritzinger, 2006) before hand may be helpful to look at prior to the course.

Workload
The teaching for this module combines traditional lectures with a number of exercises and case studies which will be tackled in small groups.

Formative Feedback
Formative feedback is given in the form of answers to questions in class, comments from case study demonstrators, model answers for case studies where available and individual written feedback on the assessment paper.

Description

• This module provides an introduction to system safety engineering. It is intended to provide a basic understanding of safety processes and of certification which are required by all engineers. This module is an introduction to the principles of system safety and dependability by design, including risk, basic terminology, and the main types of hazard and safety assessment techniques employed within a control system development project.

Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module, students will be able to:

• Understand (safety) risk, and the factors influencing perception and acceptability of risk;
• Be able to give definitions of safety-related terminology, and discuss how the use of terminology varies between countries and industrial sectors;
• Have an understanding of typical control system safety lifecycles, and the roles of the major groups of safety and dependability techniques within the lifecycle, including their roles in driving and evaluating designs and design alternatives;
• Understand the approach to certification in domains such as civil aerospace, and the role of safety analysis techniques in certification.

Content

• Introduction and Concepts (Introduction to accidents, hazards and risk; Formal definitions of terminology; Accident and incident analysis; Introduction to system safety lifecycles; Preliminary Hazard Identification; Basic risk concepts; Role of safety process in certification.)
• Safety Requirements (Types of safety requirement, including derived requirements; Setting of safety requirements, including role of FFA; Systematic Failure and DALs; Introduction to dependability and dependability data; Reliability, availability and dispatchability.)
• Analysis of Dependability (Overview of analysis techniques (FMEA, FMECA, FTA, common cause analysis); FMECA for mechanical elements, and links to safety cases; Role of Markov analysis; Preliminary System Safety Assessment (PSSA) process.)
• Design to Achieve Safety (Strategies and priorities for controlling risk; Technical approaches to controlling risk such as fault tolerance; Value and drawbacks of different classes of architecture; Relationship between maintenance and availability.)
• Management of Safety (Safety Cases: safety argument and evidence; Certification processes and practices; Safety management overview; Overview of continued airworthiness issues.)

Teaching Materials
Copies of all lecture slides, case studies and exercises will be provided.

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