Admission requirements
Intended for all BA and BSc students registered for the minor Responsible Innovation.
Description
Introduction to the field of risk and safety/ security based on various texts (book, scientific papers and book chapters). In the course, safety and security are considered from multiple perspectives (industrial safety, transport safety, organisational safety, societal safety, occupational safety, fire safety, structural safety, physical security, cyber security). Methods and techniques will be taught to model the factors which influence safety and security in these domains (technical-, human-, and organisational factors), by adopting a decomposition approach of the overall socio-technical system.
Methods and techniques of safety-by-design and security-by-design principles for systems and processes are taught to inherently reduce risks of failure during the life cycle of these systems and processes. Examples of fault-tolerant design, fail-safe design, fool/hufter-proof design in the above domains are discussed.
Course objectives
In this course, students will be introduced to safety and security risk management as it is applied in multiple domains. The focus is on how responsible decisions on safety and security, using the concepts of risk, can be made, in particular in the design phase of systems and processes.
Students learn to understand and use the concept of risk in safety and security settings, being aware of its benefits and limitations. They acquire practical knowledge and skills that allow them to describe the safety and security in qualitative and quantitative terms, to investigate the factors which have an impact on safety and security, and to derive and analyse decisions on safety- and security measures, made by risk managers.
The course starts with safety risk first (accidents), and then extends its scope to security risks (threats and attacks).
The following topics will be covered:
Introduction of important safety and risk concepts, such as probability, frequency, hazard/ threat, vulnerability, impact/ consequence
Short history of safety and risk thinking
The management of risk and safety in public and private organisations
Similarities and differences between safety and security risks
Quantitative and qualitative assessment of safety and security risks
Several risk analysis techniques such as fault/ attack trees, hazard–barrier–target HBT-model and bowties
The psychology of safety and security, human error
A systems view on safety/ security
During the course various reports on risk/ safety topics in media will be discussed.
After this course, students are able to:
Understand, apply, and quantify risk and related concepts in safety and security settings, as well as reasoning about these
Explain the similarities and differences between safety and security risks and their assessment
Understand the tasks and responsibilities of the safety/ risk manager or professional
Apply several safety and security risk analysis techniques such as fault and attack trees
Make well-founded decisions regarding safety or security issues and countermeasures, explain these choices and communicate them
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
Lecture
Research (carried out in small groups of 4-5 students)
Assessment method
Assessment
One group assignment, to be published in a written report, and to be presented in a 30 min. presentation, followed by Q&A with the teaching staff and students.
Closed-book exam (individual).
For students following the Minor 'Responsible Innovation', student attendance and participation is required and all assignments/exercises have to be fulfilled in order to receive a passing grade.
Only one lecture can be missed. If a second lecture is missed, an assignment will be given to compensate. If a third lecture is missed, a passing grade can no longer be obtained, unless permission is granted from the Board of Examiners (with consent of the Course Coordinator).
Weighing
40% for the group assignment and 60% for the individual exam. The final mark for the course is established by determining the weighted average.
Resit
The students are allowed one resit per examination. It is not allowed to resit an examination or assignment for which they have received a pass. It is allowed to resit an examination or assignment which they haven't done during the first occasion. The resit format of the group assignment needs to be discussed with the teacher of the course in line with examination regulations. The resit of the closed-book exam shall be an oral examination. The faculty rules relating to participation in resit examinations can be found in article 4.1 of the faculty Course and Examination Regulations (OER).
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
Bernardus (Ben) Ale (2009). Risk: An introduction. Abingdon: Routledge (or e-book)
Additional material (including scientific papers, book chapters and videos) will be made available through Brightspace
Registration
Students need to register for the minor at their home university and for each individual course through My Studymap Login | Universiteit Leiden
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar
For practical questions, contact the minor coordinator Lotte Pet