Admission requirements
This course is part of the minor Security, Safety and Justice, taught at TU Delft by a lecturer from TU Delft. The course can only be taken within the framework of participation in the minor SSJ.
Description
Our current society is intrinsically linked with and dependent on technology. Safety and security threats are often associated with these technologies, such as earthquakes associated with gas extraction, the dangers of nuclear waste, drones, self-driving cars, or cybercrime on the internet. This causes society to be constantly exposed to “risk”. Often, the risk level only becomes known after the technologies have been deployed and undesired events occur. Contrary to relatively well-understood risk in organisations, the introduction of new technologies in society may imply uncertain and ambiguous safety and security risk, and may give rise to heavy political debate.
In this course, you will learn to use the technology assessment framework to identify possible safety and security threats associated with new technologies, and provide suggestions for responsible design and deployment. In addition, you will learn to investigate side-effects of technologies aimed specifically at increasing security or safety, such as surveillance technologies and their effects on privacy.
Course objectives
After this course, you are able to:
Explain the goals and methods of technology assessment
Analyse possible safety and security implications of a (new) technology
Provide suggestions for responsible design and deployment of a new technology with respect to safety and security
Analyse how (new) technologies can be used to improve security and/or safety
Write a technology assessment report
Timetable
The timetable will be made available via Brightspace.
Mode of instruction
Lectures
Exercises
Group discussions
Writing a report in group
Field trip (mandatory)
Total work load: 140 hours
Lectures: 21 hours
Self study: 119 hours
Assessment method
An individual, timed exam (open book) counts for 50% of the total grade. This exam will consist of several open-ended questions which need to be elaborated in a restricted time period. In case of COVID-19 restrictions, the exam will be a take-home open book exam. In normal circumstances, the exam will be an on-campus open book exam.
A technology assessment report written in groups of 5 students counts for 50% of the total grade. Buddycheck will be used to follow-up the individual contributions to the group report. Students will have to review themselves and their teammates on several dimensions such as initiative, communication, attitude and complying with agreements. Actions will be taken if there are students with overall low scores (both the self-assessment and the assessment by the peers), or if there are large differences between the self-assessment and the average given by the peers. If needed, an adjustment of the grade will be pursued. A resit in block 3 consists of rewriting the technology assessment report (at least 50% new text).
In order to count in the final grade, the grade on the individual exam has to be 5 or more out of 10, and the grade on the group report has to be 5 or more out of 10. In order to pass the course, the mean of both assessments (individual exam and group report) has to be at least 5.8 out of 10.
Reading list
Will be made available via Brightspace.
Registration
For courses taught in Delft, TU Delft guidelines for enrollment apply. These can be found in the Minor SSJ Course Handbook on the right hand side of the programme page.
Contact
K.L.L. van Nunen
Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management
Safety & Security Science
Room: c1.060 (building 31 TU Delft)
+31 15 27 83264
K.L.L.vanNunen@tudelft.nl
Remarks
All sessions will be in English.
The paper needs to be written in English.
Course descriptions are synchronised between the study guides of Leiden University and TU Delft. However, this may take some time. For the latest description of this course, please check the corresponding page in the TU Delft study guide