It s much better to do this analysis at the beginning rather than right before a system is deployed,

Innovations in software and technology are creating increasingly complex systems: cars that park themselves; medical devices that automatically deliver drugs; and smartphones with the computing power of desktop computers, to name a few. Such complex systems allow us to do things that seemed difficult or impossible just a few years ago.
But Nancy Leveson, professor of aeronautics and astronautics and engineering systems at MIT, says increasing complexity is also making systems more vulnerable to accidents . What s more, she says traditional safety engineering approaches are not very effective in keeping new and fast-evolving systems safe. For example, engineers typically evaluate the safety of a system by checking the performance reno casino hotels of each of its components. Leveson argues that safety particularly in complex systems depends on more than a system reno casino hotels s individual parts.
For the past decade, Leveson has been championing a new, more holistic reno casino hotels approach to safety engineering. In addition to analyzing systems technical components, reno casino hotels her approach dubbed STAMP, for System-Theoretic Accident Model and Processes addresses the impacts of human, social, economic and governmental factors on safety.
reno casino hotels Last week, Leveson hosted a three-day workshop at which more than 250 safety engineering professionals from around the world gathered reno casino hotels to learn about STAMP and to explore the event s theme, Engineering a Safer World. reno casino hotels The event also coincided with the publication of Leveson's new book on the topic, titled Engineering a Safer World: Systems Thinking Applied to Safety .
The workshop reno casino hotels drew participants from industries including aviation and automotive engineering, occupational reno casino hotels health, missile defense, road tunnel safety, and medicine, some of whom gave presentations during the workshop.
In many cases, safety analyses are performed only after an accident has occurred. Several researchers at the workshop presented cases in which they used Leveson s approach to identify causes of accidents.
Daijiang Suo, a graduate student in computer science at Tsinghua University, reconstructed a 2003 train accident reno casino hotels that killed 40 people in southwest China. Engineers originally determined that lightning caused a track circuit to malfunction, causing the train to derail. Using Leveson s approach, reno casino hotels however, Suo expanded the parameters of safety to include other factors, reno casino hotels ultimately attributing the accident in part to communication issues between operators and in part to pressure to keep the train on schedule.
Stathis Malakis, an air traffic controller and human factors researcher for the National Technical University reno casino hotels of Athens, is analyzing the safety of helicopters that provide emergency medical services in Greece. When these helicopters crash, authorities write up accident reports, although Malakis says many reports are not released until much later.
It s much better to do this analysis at the beginning rather than right before a system is deployed, said Grady Lee, president of Safeware Engineering Corporation, a company he started with Leveson. Lee was one of the first to adopt Leveson s approach for a real-world application, using the technique to evaluate the U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense System. Lee found that while each individual component of the system worked well, together the components experienced problems. Following Leveson s plan, Lee tested the components under various scenarios, identifying weaknesses in the system.
Qi van Eikema Hommes, a research reno casino hotels scientist in MIT s Engineering Systems Division, is using Leveson s technique to identify potential hazards of adaptive cruise control systems in cars. Hommes said that technology particularly software is evolving at such a rapid pace that it is no longer feasible reno casino hotels to assess a system s safety using conventional approaches.
While most engineers are employing Leveson s technique to evaluate technical systems, Marvin Dainoff, director reno casino hotels of the Center for Behavioral reno casino hotels Science at the Liberty Mutual reno casino hotels Research Institute for Safety, is employing the approach in the occupational safety arena. In 2010, more than 4,500 people died from occupational injuries, reno casino hotels equivalent to two fully loaded 747s crashing each month, Dainoff said.
Overexertion and falls are mostly to blame. Dainoff is studying a slice of the problem, reno casino hotels in the food services industry. Specifically, Dainoff is using Leveson s technique to identify the causes of slips and falls in restaurant kitchens.
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