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Here are some links to university departments, both
in the UK and overseas, with specific research interests
in safety engineering issues. Most of the research programmes
covered here are not specific to the railway, but will
be of more general interest.
| Safety Systems Research Centre
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The
Safety Systems Research Centre (SSRC), Department
of Computer Science, University of Bristol, UK,
intends to form the focus for a 'holistic' approach
to the design, operation and maintenance of safe
and reliable computer-based systems.
Sponsorship (including Network Rail) supports their
Generic Research Programme. The programme includes
research to develop improved models to quantify
the risk factors associated with complex systems
involving human factors.
Projects - Publications.
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| Centre for Software Reliability
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The
Centre
for Software Reliability (CSR) at City University,
UK, is an independent Research Centre in the School
of Informatics, founded in 1983. In addition, the centre has
expanded its research focus to quantitative assessment of the
dependability and security of socio-technical systems and the
resilience of information-based critical infrastructures.
Since the 1996 research Assessment Exercise (RAE), CSR has attracted
funding of more than £5 million in research grants and contracts,
of which more than £2.7 million comes from the UK's
Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC).
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| Software Safety Research Group
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The
Software
Safety Research Group, Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, US is to develop a theoretical
foundation for safety and a methodology for building
safety-critical systems built upon that foundation.
The methodology includes special management structures
and procedures, system hazard analysis, software
hazard analysis, requirements modeling and analysis
for completeness and safety, special software
design techniques, including design of human-machine
interaction, verification (both testing and code
analysis), operational feedback, and change analysis.
It is lead by Nancy Leveson, a well-known scientist
in the field of safety engineering, author of
Safeware: System Safety and Computers.
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| Networks and Distributed Research Group
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The
Networks
and Distributed Systems Research Group, Faculty
of Technology, University of Bielefeld, lead by
Peter Ladkin, have developed the Why-Because Analysis
method, a formal technique, based on formal semantics
and logic, for analysing and explaining individual
accidents. It separates the various explanatory
domains: time, causation, and deontics (regulations,
obligations and operating procedures).
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Pointers
to Formal Methods resources can be found on the following
page: The
WWW Virtual Library: Formal Methods.
If you know
of any other links that should be added to this page,
please email webmaster@yellowbook-rail.org.uk
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