Safety-Critical Computer Systems

Lectures:
12 h

Recommended for
Recommended for Graduate students with interest in systems engineering.

The course was last given:
New course.

Goals
To get an overview of system development process for computer systems which have the potential to cause harm to people or the environment. To study specific techniques for safety and reliability analysis and understand their interrelationships. To get some orientation on the current international standards for system safety and software in safety-critical systems.

Prerequisites
Basic knowledge in software engineering, control engineering or human computer interaction, basic knowledge in logic and statistics.

Organization
One lecture a week followed by a period of self study leading to presentation of a case study at a final seminar.

Contents
Development process for safety-critical systems, Risk management, Reliability analysis, Fault tolerance, Safety and functional analysis, Modelling and verification, The role of standards and authorities.

Literature
Neil Storey, Safety-Critical Computer Systems, Addison Wesley, 1996. Nancy Leveson, Safeware, system safety and computers, Addison Wesley, 1995. Material from Risk Forum and other web sources on computer systems failures.

Teachers
Simin Nadjm-Tehrani and invited lectures from industry.

Examiner
Simin Nadjm-Tehrani.

Schedule
Fall 2000.

Examination
Preparation of written questions for discussion based on the chapters studied before each lecture. The detailed study of one real-life case and the presentation of the sources of failure.

Credit
4 credits

Page responsible: Director of Graduate Studies