Admission requirements
This course is part of the minor Public Risk and Disaster. The course is taught at TU Delft by a lecturer from TU Delft. The course can only be taken within the framework of participation in the minor PRD. This minor is a consistent package of courses designed to help you build your knowledge in a logical and connected way. It is not possible to follow single courses.
Description
Our current society is intrinsically linked with and dependent on technology. Safety and security risks are often associated with these technologies, such as earthquakes associated with gas extraction, the risks of nuclear waste, hacking of 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 risks in organisations, the introduction of new technologies in society may imply uncertain, unforeseen, and ambiguous safety and security risk, and may give rise to political debate.
In this course, you will learn to identify possible safety and security risks associated with new technologies, and provide suggestions for responsible design and deployment. In addition, you will learn to investigate side-effects of technologies, and their potential effect on moral values, such as surveillance technologies and their effects on privacy and inclusion.
Course objectives
After this course, you will be able to:
1. Explain the goals and methods of technology evaluation, and apply it to a specific case
2. Identify and analyse possible security and/or safety implications of a (new) technology
3. Analyse how (new) technologies can be used to improve security and/or safety, and identify and analyse possible side-effects such as the effect on other values
4. Provide suggestions for responsible design and deployment of a new technology with respect to security, safety, and other values
5. Write a technology evaluation report in a multidisciplinary group
Timetable
The course schedule can be found at the TU Delft timetable. You can find the course schedule via ‘add timetable’ after logging in with your TU Delft credentials. Risk Management of Emerging Technologies has course code TBM025C.
Mode of instruction
Lectures with class discussions and plenary exercises in relation to the theoretical knowledge acquired. Attendance to the lectures is mandatory.
Total study load: 140 hours
Lectures: 12 hours
Group tutoring (formative assessment): 6 hour
Self-study and group work: 122 hours
Assessment method
An individual, on-campus exam counts for 50% of the total grade (summative assessment). The exam is closed-book. The exam is digital and will be administered via the program ANS. The exam will consist of several open-ended questions which need to be elaborated in a restricted time period. A resit of the exam takes place in block 3.
A technology assessment report written in groups of approximately 5 students counts for 50% of the total grade (summative assessment). Individual contributions should be listed in an appendix. Problems with group cooperation should be reported as they occur and will be taken into account if necessary. A resit in block 3 consists of rewriting the technology assessment report. When participating in the resit for the technology assessment report, a maximum grade of 6.0 can be obtained.
In order to pass the course, the grade on the individual exam has to be 5.5 or more out of 10, and the grade on the group report has to be 5.5 or more out of 10. Furthermore, in order to pass the course, the mean of both assessments (individual exam and group report) has to be at least 6.0 out of 10.
For all courses of the minor PRD, final grades are rounded off to the nearest half point, except between 5 and 6. For grades between 5.0 and 6.0, a 5.5 and higher will be rounded up to a 6.0, and grades below 5.5 will be rounded down to 5.0. No final grades between 5.0 and 6.0 will be given.
If the final score is a passing grade, students are not allowed to the retake to obtain a higher grade, unless given explicit permission by the Board of Examiners of the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (Leiden University).
This course is part of the minor Public Risk and Disaster. This minor needs to be completed in one academic year. It is not possible to retake courses that you have not passed during the following academic year. If you think an exception to this rule applies to you, please contact the Board of Examiners of the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (Leiden University).
No matter what academic institution a student comes from, the minor Public Risk and Disaster falls under the course and examinations regulation of the bachelor Security Studies of Leiden University. These course rules are further expanded on in the rules and regulations of the Board of Examiners of the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (Leiden University). This Board of Examiners is also the relevant body for disputes.
Upon request, students have the right to inspect their assessed work for a period of 20 working days after the announcement of the results of the exam or the report. During the inspection of the assessed work, it is not permitted to copy the underlying examination questions. If a student wishes to inspect the results, the student needs to contact the module manager via e-mail to make an appointment within the period of 20 working days after the announcement of the results. This appointment cannot take place online.
Reading list
The reading list will be made available via Brightspace.
For all six courses from the minor PRD – so both the courses offered by Leiden University as by TU Delft – the Brightspace platform from Leiden University will be used. So all study materials for this course can be found on the Brightspace platform from Leiden University.
Registration
To be announced by OSC staff.
Contact
Dr. K.L.L. van Nunen
Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management
Department of Values, Technology and Innovation
Safety & Security Science Group
E-mail: K.L.L.vanNunen@tudelft.nl
Room: C1.130 (building 31 TU Delft, Jaffalaan 5, 2628 BX Delft)
Remarks
All lectures, assignments, and communication for this course will be in English.
Lectures for this course take place at TU Delft (building 31 TU Delft, Jaffalaan 5, 2628 BX Delft).
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 Risk Management of Emerging Technologies has course code TBM025C.
Please be aware that the minor PRD needs to be completed in one academic year. It is not possible to retake courses that you have not passed during the following academic year. If you think an exception to this rule applies to you, please contact the board of examiners of the Institute of Security and Global Affairs.