 |
|
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 Critical Computing Group |
Safety
Critical Computing Group, School of Computing,
University of Leeds, UK.
Their research is primarily concerned with the
development of methods to assist in the design,
implementation and assessment of safety-related
and high-integrity telematic systems, with particular
emphasis on road transport applications. A specific
objective of the group is to make effective use
of safety integrity levels in the development
of safety-related systems so that product costs
may be kept as low as possible without compromising
safety requirements.
|
| Safety Systems Research Centre
|
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.
|
| Dependability Research Group
|
The
Dependability
Research Group, Department of Computer Science,
University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, are undertaking
activities centred mainly on techniques for dependability
requirements, human factors, systems security
and so on.
Projects
- Publications.
|
| Centre for Software Reliability
|
The
Centre
for Software Reliability (CSR) at City University,
UK, is an independent Research Centre in the School
of Informatics, founded in 1983. CSR has since
attracted over 4 million GBP of international
and UK research funding, and built an international
reputation for its research achievements in the
areas of software and the fundamental issues for
safety critical systems.
Projects
- Publications.
|
| Safety-Critical Software Group
|
The
Safety-Critical
Software Group, Department of Computer Science,
University of Virginia, US, conducts research
in the application of modern software engineering
techniques for the construction of safety-critical
systems. They have mainly undertaken work in the
medical and nuclear areas.
|
| Methods Integration Research Unit
|
The
Methods
Integration Research Unit, School of Computing
and Mathematics, University of Teesside, UK, is
concerned with the study and integration of methods
for the development of complex software based
systems. Its particular focus is on the practical
integration of established methods, thus allowing
multiple views of systems under development. The
activity of the group is also focused on the development
and application of hazard evaluation techniques
that can be applied to models of software systems.
|
| Software Verification Research Centre
|
The
Software Verification Research Centre (SVRC),
Department of Computer Science and Electrical
Engineering, University of Queensland, Australia's
research programme has two main aspects: the creation
and prototyping of integrated formal development
methods and tools for the high integrity software
industry; and complementary investigations into
topics which have the potential to strengthen
future integrated methods and tools.
The
SVRC also offer safety consultancy services in
the rail and aviation market.
|
| Software Safety Research Group
|
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.
|
| formalWARE Project
|
The
formalWARE
Project, Department of Computer Science, University
of British Columbia was a two-year collaborative
industry/university research project. It began
in April 1996 and gradually came to completion
in the last half of 1998. It focused on the use
of formal methods to address specific challenges
in area of software safety verification. The research
scope of this project included: requirements specification
and validation, requirements-based, system level
testing, software component engineering, and system
safety engineering.
|
| Networks and Distributed Research Group
|
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).
Projects - Publications.
|
Pointers
to Formal Methods resources can be found on the following
pages: The
WWW Virtual Library: Formal Methods -
Formal Methods Around the World.
If you know
of any other links that should be added to this page,
please email webmaster@yellowbook-rail.org.uk
|
|
