A New Systems Approach to Safety Analysis – Dr. John Thomas

Reliability Chapter Meeting – 5:30PM – 8:15PM – Wednesday, September 9

“A New Systems Approach to Safety Analysis”, Dr. John Thomas

Systems Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) is a powerful new hazard analysis method designed to capture often overlooked causes of accidents like incomplete, incorrect, or missing requirements, dysfunctional component interactions, software errors, and unexpected human behavior. Although traditional analysis techniques have been effective at reducing accidents caused by well-known component failures, modern complex systems have introduced new problems that can be much more difficult to anticipate, analyze, and prevent. A new class of accidents, component interaction accidents, has become increasingly prevalent in today’s systems and can occur even when systems operate exactly as designed and without any individual component failures. Although STPA can be used for hazard analysis, it is also being used during early development to derive the necessary safety requirements and drive design decisions as they are being made thereby preventing mistakes and reducing costly rework. While STPA is relatively new, it is now being used in many industries including aerospace, automotive, nuclear, petrochemical, and defense industries.

Dr. John Thomas is a Research Engineer in the System Engineering Research Laboratory at MIT. His research involves creating methods for analyzing complex software and embedded systems, especially systems that may behave in unanticipated, unsafe, or otherwise undesirable ways through complex interactions with each other and their environment. More recently he has been applying these techniques to improve automated systems that interact with humans and may not only experience human error but may inadvertently induce human error through mode confusion, clumsy automation, and other mechanisms that can be difficult to anticipate.

Agenda:
5:30-6:00 Sign In, Networking, Light Dinner & Refreshments
6:00-6:10 Chapter Chair Greetings & Announcements
6:10-8:00 Dr John Thomas – MIT
8:00-8:15 Q&A session, meeting adjourns

Meeting Location: 32 Vassar Street, MIT Campus, Cambridge, MA 02139. Building: Ray and Maria Stata Center, Room Number: 32-141.

No Admission Charge.

To assist us in planning this meeting, please pre-register at http://www.ieeeboston.org/Register/