U.S. Particle Accelerator School
Hazard Analysis and Decision Making course
Sponsoring University:
University of Texas, Austin
Course:
Hazard Analysis and Decision Making
Instructors:
John Thomas, MIT and Enzo Carrone, SLAC
Purpose and Audience
This course covers the theory and practical steps required to justify, design, and manage personnel and machines to ensure safety. The course addresses both context and content of complex issues associated with computer based safety systems. This session will also discuss emerging risks such as cyber security as well the latest design approaches.
The course is beneficial to physicists, engineers, computer scientists, health physicists, and managers responsible for developing or managing safety systems. It is suitable for last year undergraduate students or higher who have an interest in safety system design and lifecycle management. The content is relevant to attendees from U.S. and international facilities. The American Academy of Health Physics has awarded 40 continuing education credits (CECs) for this course and assigned it ID 2016-01-003.
Objectives
Through the context of system safety practices, we introduce the basic lifecycle steps and skills required for system analysis, design, and management to ensure safety. The basic skills include: hazard analysis and assessment methods; requirements development; anticipating unsafe human-computer interactions; and safety-driven design techniques; and decision-making strategies. By the end of the course, the student will have a basic understanding of these methods and how to apply them to their facility.
Instructional Method
The course will include a series of lectures with PowerPoint presentations and related handouts. There will be several group exercises that introduce students to hazard analysis and assessment. Homework problem sets are assigned each day and are expected to be completed outside of scheduled class sessions.
Course Content
Course content includes a basic introduction to system safety, followed by a discussion on safety terminology (i.e. accident, hazard, risk, accidents, reliability). Methods and modeling techniques will include Event Trees, Fault Tree Analysis, Failure Modes and Effects Analysis, Markov Models, Systems Theoretic Accident Model and Processes, and Systems Theoretic Process Analysis). Software specific issues will be discussed as well as human error and techniques to manage complex human-computer interactions. Decision making and behavioral strategy will be discussed, along with applications to cyber-security.
Reading Requirements
“Engineering a Safer World” by Nancy Leveson, MIT Press (2012). PDF available at: http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/engineering-safer-world
Optional reading: “Safeware” by Nancy Leveson, Addison Wesley (1995)
Credit Requirements
Students will be evaluated on the basis of homework assignments (60%) and classroom participation (40%).
UT Austin credit is only earned when this one-week half course is taken with a second one-week half course and both are successfuly completed thereby earning 3 credit hours.
UT Austin course number & course title on transcript: PHY 396T (69875): ADV TOPICS IN ACCELERATOR PHYSICS
Indiana University course number and title on transcript: Physics 671, Advanced Topics in Accelerator Physics
Indiana University course number: Physics 671
Michigan State University course number: PHY 963
MIT course number: 8.790 "Accelerator Physics"