|
German Chapter
The German Chapter organized the 4th Bieleschweig Workshop on Systems Engineering on September 14-15, 2004, at the Technical University in Braunschweig. The
workshop was well attended by over 60 participants from several application sectors (e.g., chemical, automotive, railway, power generation) and included 17 presentations,
mainly on topics in risk analysis and incident investigation. More information, including the presentation slides, can be found at http://www.ifev.tu-bs.de/Workshops_Tagungen/Bieleschweig/bieleschweig4/i
ndex.html.
The next Bieleschweig Workshop will take place on April 5-6, 2005, at the Technical University in Munich (see http://www.systemsafety.de for more details).
Northwest Chapter
The Northwest Chapter kicked off its 2005 Chapter year with a combination Chapter meeting and tour of a local winery.
Tennessee Valley Chapter
The Tennessee Valley Chapter continues to be very aggressive in providing its members with sources for new and innovative system
safety information and techniques.
At the October 20, 2004, luncheon meeting, Bob Frazier (System Safety Manager for the Apache Helicopter Project Management Office,
Redstone Arsenal) gave a one-hour presentation on Isograph’s FaultTree+ analysis software. During the business portion of the meeting, the Chapter focused on two proposed
changes to the Chapter Charter and on the disposition of several proposals received for the expenditure of Chapter funds. Nineteen members and guests attended the meeting
hosted by SAIC.
On November 15, 2004, the Chapter held its luncheon meeting in the new wing of APT Research in Huntsville, Alabama. Tom Pfitzer,
president of APT Research, welcomed everyone to the new building and introduced a number of distinguished attendees, including Pat Clemens (a legend in the world of system
safety) of APT Research and John Frost, Chief of the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command (USAAMCOM) Safety Office. Chapter President Dave West welcomed everyone to the
meeting, including guests from New Mexico, Utah and Virginia who were in town for a system safety training course being presented by Pat Clemens. Then Jonny Bennett, Executive
Director of the Tennessee Valley Training Center in Decatur, Alabama, talked to the members and guests about the capabilities of his training center and the types of safety
training that his organization conducts. The organization was founded to provide local industry with safety-oriented employees before they begin work in their respective
facility. He said it saves industry time and money. Thirty members and guests attended the meeting.
Twin Cities Chapter
The Twin Cities Chapter meeting, held November 11, 2004, covered the topic of probability analysis and fault trees. Dr. John Fitch,
who recently retired from ATK OS, discussed some of the basic theory needed to properly apply fault probabilities to fault trees. In particular, he covered issues regarding
independent events and some of the surprising results that can occur when events are not independent.
A lively discussion ensued regarding the basis to use for fault probabilities, reliability failure rates or more pessimistic
probabilities based on other data sources. It was decided that the purpose of the fault tree and the customer’s view were the determining factors.
Among the attendees were two individuals who perform forensic investigations and analysis for insurance companies and other groups.
The Chapter learned some interesting facts from them, and they left with a better understanding of safety design principles and fault tree probability analysis that will be
helpful to them in their work.
|
