Introduction to System Safety Engineering and Management - aSCSa Five Day Course

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This course is a five day primer in system safety engineering, and is sponsored by aSCSa and the Australian National University (ANU) within Australia.

 

The course comprises a mix of lectures, discussions and small group exercises, supported by Australian and international examples.  Whilst touching on the broader issues in theorizing risk and managing safety within organisations, the main focus is to equip safety practitioners with the practical understanding necessary to engage with safety activities.

The University of York developed the course for their Master of Science in Safety Critical Systems Engineering program and is structured according to the engineering lifecycle of a service or physical system, covering:

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• Concepts and terminology for safety. 

• Overview of the engineering lifecycle from a safety perspective, including the role and intent of key safety activities.

• Hazard identification and setting of safety requirement or safety analysis to support design, including: 

 

* Techniques for Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA).
* Functional Failure Analysis (FFA).
* Hazard and Operability Studies (HAZOP).
* Fault Tree Analysis (FTA). 

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• Safety cases, including notations for recording arguments and evidence.

• Specific issues in safety analysis, including Human Factors, Software and Data Safety.

 

In Australia the courses is jointly hosted by the aSCSa and ANU, but is nonetheless presented by both past and present members of the research and teaching staff from the University of York.

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The course began in Australia in 2005 and was run annually at the ANU.  Since 2012, the ANU has moved to a biennial arrangement running for even numbered years.  For the odd-numbered years, a similar course is run at Griffith University.