System Safety
Course facts
- Payment: Free, no certificate
- Credits: Non Credit
- Learning style: Self-paced, start anytime
- Resources: Activity Assignments; Lecture Notes; Written Assignments
MIT OpenCourseWare details
- As taught in: Spring 2016
- Department: Aeronautics and Astronautics, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society
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Designing and operating safety-critical systems: accident analysis, STAMP, CAST, STPA hazard analysis, human factors and safety management.
Too often accidents are blamed on operators, without looking at poor system design and management decisions. This class teaches concepts and techniques for designing and operating safety-critical systems, using cases such as Bhopal, the Columbia Space Shuttle, Deepwater Horizon and Fukushima. It covers accident models, the CAST and STPA analysis methods, human factors, software, cyber security and safety culture.
What You Will Achieve
- Analyze the cause of an accident in a blame-free context
- Perform a hazard analysis using STPA
- Use hazard analysis results to design for safety
- Create an operations safety management plan
Program Overview
Accidents and Causality
The first sessions ask why accidents happen.
- Causality and hindsight bias
- Accident models and STAMP
- CAST and accident analysis
Hazard Analysis and Design
Next come methods for preventing them.
- Traditional hazard analysis
- Systems Theoretic Process Analysis
- Design for safety
- Human factors
Operations and Management
The last sessions deal with running safe systems.
- Cyber security
- Operations and regulation
- Management and SUBSAFE
Course Completion
Job Outlook
These techniques are used by engineers and managers responsible for safety-critical systems, in fields such as aerospace, energy and software.
Good for: Engineers and managers who work on complex, potentially dangerous systems and want methods beyond traditional hazard analysis.
Keep in mind: The approach centers on STAMP, CAST and STPA, and the textbooks are by one author. The class project and discussions cannot be repeated with feedback.
Bottom line: A different view of accident causes, with methods you can apply to your own systems.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which textbooks are used?
Safeware by Nancy Leveson and Engineering a Safer World, also by Leveson, which the syllabus says is available as a free download from the MIT Press website.
What is the class project?
A high-level system design and analysis of a safety-critical system, built in parts through the term and presented in the final session.
Which accidents does it discuss?
The syllabus names Air France 477, the Columbia Space Shuttle, Deepwater Horizon, Fukushima and Chernobyl, and the first session covers Bhopal.
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