Gain a system-level perspective and understand how to achieve system safety.

Students are introduced to the basic concepts, terminology and methods of engineering safe technical systems. The course gives fundamentals of system engineering, including the most important phases such as requirements engineering, design synthesis, implementation, verification, validation and disposal and their impact on safety. The system engineering lifecycle is therefore expanded to include the required safety processes and concepts, where students would be capable to correctly interpret and define technical safety. The course gives important insights into influences and success factors on safety, as well as the established risk assessment concepts. Specific consideration is given to functional safety, with the goal to understand the role of safety functions and their application in the system engineering lifecycle concerning safety. Functional safety is finally emphasized by the specific roles hardware and software may play in achieving the safety goals.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

• Understand the concept of a system, system engineering lifecycle, and the importance of system-level design approach with regard to safety

• Define the system and its boundaries and understand system environment, context and interactions with other systems concerning the impact to safety

• Understand the basic principles of specific system life cycle phases, such as requirements engineering, design synthesis, realization, integration, verification, and validation

• Understand the integrative safety process and its phases, and how it relates to the system engineering life cycle

• Correctly use the safety terminology, such as hazard, risk, failure, fault, and error

• Understand and be able to perform basic risk evaluation, including risk matrices/graphs

• Understand the influence of various factors on system safety, including the standards, human factor, security, management and software

• Understand the concept of functional safety, safety functions, and their application in technical systems

• Use key quantifications, such as failure probability, reliability, failure rate, constant failure rate, MTTF, FIT, mean uptime and downtime, availability, etc. and be able to perform basic calculations

Hardware (required): Computer with Internet connection, working speakers and microphone.

Software: Chrome browser.

Course Typically Offered: Live Online in Fall quarter (September - mid December).

Prerequisites: Students should have basic engineering knowledge in either one of the following disciplines: electrical engineering, computer engineering, or mechanical engineering; a basic probability theory familiarity is also required.

Next Step: To gain further knowledge in system safety and functional safety, consider taking the courses NIT-FSBA-02: Safety Analaysis Methods and NIT-FSBA-03: Fault Tolerant Systems.

Course Number: NIT-FSBA-01

Duration: 3.00 units (~30 live teaching hours, ~60 hours of individual practice and preparation work)