Safety-Critical Systems Symposium 2026
The Safety Critical Systems Club Symposium SSS'26 was held in York, UK from the 10th - 12th February 2026. There were keynote presentations, invited talks, talks selected by abstract submission, an exhibition, a poster session, workshops and tutorials. There was also be an evening banquet, entertainment, armchair chats and social events.
The SSS'26 Programme is available:
Download - SSS'26 Programme
Keynote speakers were:
- Simon Burton, University of York
- Mikela Chatzimichailidou, University College London
- Phil Koopman, Consultant and Carnegie Mellon University
- Odd Ivar Haugen, DNV
- Harold Thimbleby, University of Swansea
- Steve Wright, Wright Airborne
The after-dinner talk on the Wednesday was by Graham Braithwaite, Director of Aerospace and Aviation, Cranfield University
Day 1 Resources (Tuesday 10th February 2026) – UAV & UAS, Addressing Complexity and Extras
| Schedule | |||||
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| Registration with coffee and light breakfast from 08:30 - 10:20 | |||||
| Time | Author(s) | Title | Slides | Video | Paper |
| 10:20 - 10:30 | Mike Parsons SCSC |
Welcome and Introduction | |||
| Session: UAV & UAS Chaired by Mikela Chatzimichailidou |
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| 10:30 - 11:05 | Keynote: Steve Wright Wright Airborne |
Staying safe from flying killer robots |  |
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| 11:05 - 11:35 | Bernhard Kaiser et al. Ansys |
Agile Model-Based Development and Safety Assessment for Light UAVs | |
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| 11:35 - 12:05 | Coffee | ||||
| Session: Addressing Complexity Chaired by Davy Pissoort |
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| 12:05 - 12:35 | Chris Hobbs (Farmhall) & Mike Parsons (SCSC) | Complex Systems Guidance: Learning from Surprises | |
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| 12:35 - 13:35 | Lunch with Talk @ 13:05: Simon Whiteley Whiteley Aerospace |
Addressing Complexity using STAMP Control Structure Models and STPA Hazard Analysis | |
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| 13:35 - 14:05 | Jonas Wolf, Hartmut Hörner Vector Informatik GmbH |
Introducing a new complexity metric on software unit level | |
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| 14:05 - 14:35 | James Inge, Katia Potiron, Joseph Machrouh | Putting importance into context: moving from the abstract to the concrete with IEC 63187 | |
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| 14:35 - 14:55 | Mikela Chatzimichailidou talking to Karin Rudolph | Armchair chat | |
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| 14:55 - 15:25 | Tea | ||||
| 15:25 - 15:55 | James Inge, Katia Potiron, Mark Carter, Ian Hartwell | Integration of Human Factors into Complex System Safety | |
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| 15:55 - 16:30 | Keynote: Odd Ivar Haugen DNV |
Complexity and Assurance | |
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| Extras | |||||
| 16:30 - 17:30 | Paul Hampton and Karin Rudolph | Technical entertainment: ‘AI Don’t Believe It!’ | |
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Day 2 Resources (Wednesday 11th February 2026) – New Approaches, Workshops, Tutorials and YEC
Day 2 - Stream A Resources
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| Schedule | |||||
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| Stream A: New Approaches [Events Centre] | |||||
| Time | Author(s) | Title | Slides | Video | Paper |
| Session: New Approaches Chaired by Stephen Bull |
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| 08:35 - 09:05 | Keynote: Mikela Chatzimichailidou University College London |
Balancing Act: Navigating the Tensions Between Safety, Innovation, and Sustainability | |
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| 09:10 - 09:35 | Darendra Appanah, James Cruise, Walden Killick, Bob Oates Cambridge Consultants |
Quantifying the quantised – the interface of quantum technology and safety | |
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| 09:40 - 10:10 | Keynote: Harold Thimbleby Swansea University |
A framework to update the Common Law presumption that computer evidence is reliable | |
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| 10:10 - 10:40 | Coffee | ||||
| 10:40 - 11:00 | Phil Koopman talking to Roger Rivett | Armchair chat | |
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| 11:05 - 11:30 | Helen Monkhouse, Michael Orgill HORIBA MIRA |
Automated Driving (AD) Residual Risk | |
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| 11:35 - 12:00 |
Olivier Rousse |
COTS computer-based devices: Qualification or safety justification needs in the nuclear industry | |
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| 12:05 - 12:30 | Laure Buysse, Mohammed Tloul, Dries Vanoost and Davy Pissoort KU Leuven and Flanders Make |
Towards Dynamic Safety Cases for Cobots: Leveraging Standards, Indicators, and Digital Twins | |
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| 12:30 - 13:30 | Lunch | ||||
| Session: New Approaches Chaired by Karin Rudolph |
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| 13:30 - 13:55 | Sam Moody EDF |
Practical experience with the use of static techniques in the substantiation of safety related systems | |
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| 14:00 - 14:25 | Gavin McCall Codethink |
The Eclipse Trustable Software Framework | |
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| 14:30 - 14:55 |
Leo Frietas Colin O’Halloran and Nick Tudor |
Platform: An UK/GE collaboration on formal methods and testing | |
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| 15:00 - 15:25 | Carmen Carlan TÜV SÜD Rail GmbH |
Towards Implementing Safety Factories to Enable Agile and Continuous Delivery of Safety-critical Systems | |
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| 15:25 - 15:55 | Tea | ||||
| 16:00 - 17:00 |
Carmen Carlan Mark Sujan |
Large Language Models in Safety-Critical Domains: Qualification, Assurance and Practical Limits | |
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| 17:00 - 18:00 | Poster Session | ||||
| Lavinia Burski AtkinsRéalis |
Transforming Formal Verification: Insights from MALPAS | |
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Paul Hampton |
OWG introduction | |
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James Inge |
IEC 63187 Systems engineering - System safety Complex systems in defence programmes | |
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Jonas Wolf |
Goal structuring notation tool (gsn2x) | |
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Andrew Eaton |
A Safety Case Report Format: Helping people to understand your safety case | |
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Mohammed Tloul |
STPA Analysis for a Wheelchair with a Head-Foot Steering System | |
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Chris Hobbs |
Safer Complex Systems Working Group | |
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Alan Simpson |
Safe AI Working Group | |
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Kevin King |
Service Assurance Working Group | |
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Simon Whiteley |
Addressing Complexity using STAMP Control Structure Models and STPA Hazard Analysis | |
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Davy Pissoort |
COSAIN: Co-Designing Safety and Control for Autonomous Navigation on Inland Waterways | ||||
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Davy Pissoort |
ORCA: Orchestrating Resilient and Compliant Agents | ||||
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Mike Parsons |
Data Safety Initiative (DSIWG) Update | |
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Paul Ensor |
Information Systems: Advisory to Assured | |
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Laure Buysse |
Towards Dynamic Safety Cases for Cobots: Leveraging Standards, Indicators, and Digital Twins | |
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| 19:00 | Banquet | ||||
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Graham Braithwaite |
After Dinner Speech: Safety is a very serious topic... | |
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Day 2 - Stream B Resources
| Schedule | |||||
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| Stream B: Workshops [Jorvik Room] | |||||
| Time | Author(s) | Title | Slides | Video | Paper |
| 08:35 - 09:05 | |||||
| 09:10 - 09:35 | Keith Armstrong and Davy Pissoort KU Leuven |
Why EMC testing is not enough, and what to do about it | |
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| 09:40 - 10:10 | |||||
| 10:10 - 10:40 | Coffee | ||||
| 10:40 - 11:00 | |||||
| 11:05 - 11:30 |
Vikas Ghatge1,2, Dries Vanoost1,2, Rob Kleihorst3, Davy Pissoort1,2 1 KU Leuven |
Ensuring Safety and Effectiveness of Medical Devices in the Presence of Electromagnetic Disturbances through a Unified EMC Assurance Case: A Risk Pattern | |
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| 11:35 - 12:00 |
Divya & Martin Atkins Tim Rowe |
How to be Data-Safe |
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| 12:05 - 12:30 |
How to be Data-Safe - continued |
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| 12:30 - 13:30 | Lunch | ||||
| 13:30 - 13:55 | Jeff Joyce, Adam Casey, Simon Diemert, and Laure Millet CS Labs |
Configurable Assurance Cases | |
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| 14:00 - 14:25 | Configurable Assurance Cases - continued | ||||
| 14:30 - 14:55 |
Robert Stroud Sam Moody |
Experience using static analysis tools to build confidence in safety-critical software for industrial control systems |
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| 15:00 - 15:25 | Experience using static analysis tools to build confidence in safety-critical software for industrial control systems - continued |
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| 15:25 - 15:55 | Tea | ||||
| 16:00 - 17:00 |
Joe Hare, Leo Freitas, Ken Pierce, Callum Robinson |
Modelling the Requirements of a Medical Device in Kapture and Simulink | |
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Day 2 - Stream C Resources
| Schedule | |||||
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| Stream C: Tutorials & YEC [Minister Room] | |||||
| Time | Author(s) | Title | Slides | Video | Paper |
| 08:35 - 09:05 | |||||
| 09:10 - 09:35 |
James Inge Katia Potiron |
Developing IEC 63187 | |
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| 09:40 - 10:10 | |||||
| 10:10 - 10:40 | Coffee | ||||
| 10:40 - 11:00 | |||||
| 11:05 - 11:30 |
Peter Ladkin |
Possibility Analysis | |
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| 11:35 - 12:00 |
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Possibility Analysis - continued |
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| 12:05 - 12:30 | Chris Hobbs Farmhall |
Sensitivity Analysis in a Safety Case |
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| 12:30 - 13:30 | Lunch | ||||
| 13:30 - 14:25 | Young and Early-career speakers | 5 minute ‘pitch’ talks | |||
| Beatriz Coutinho 3SK |
Why is HRA important in SOFIT for off-road vehicles? | |
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| Mohamad Cherry LSE |
An Analysis of the Air France Flight 447 Accident | |
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| Mohammed Tloul KU Leuven |
Applying STPA to a Wheelchair with Head-Foot Steering System | |
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| Walden Killick Cambridge Consultants |
When Will Quantum Computers Break Encryption? | |
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| George Hipwell BAE Systems |
Spider silk – Swinging into the future of biomaterials | |
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| Suemaiya Zaman University of York |
Hazard Analysis Method for Dynamic Systems of Systems | |
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| 14:30 - 14:55 | Jonathan Pallant Ferrous Systems |
Building safety-critical systems in Rust Click here for workshop outputs (jonathanpallant/sss26@2a56541 - GitHub) |
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| 15:00 - 15:25 | Building safety-critical systems in Rust - continued | ||||
| 15:25 - 15:55 | Tea | ||||
| 16:00 - 17:00 | Jeff Joyce, Adam Casey, Simon Diemert, Laure Millet Critical Systems Labs |
Operationalizing Metamorphic Testing for Validation of Complex Safety-critical Functions | |
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Day 3 Resources (Thursday 12th February 2026) – AI & Autonomy
| Schedule | |||||
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| Coffee and light breakfast from 08:00 - 08:30 | |||||
| Time | Author(s) | Title | Slides | Video | Paper |
| Session: AI & Autonomy 1 Chaired by Karin Rufolph |
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| 09:05 - 09:35 | Abigail M. Post, David D. Woods, Martijn IJtsma The Ohio State University |
An Updatable Process to Assess Human Interaction with Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Automation Over Time | |
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| 09:35 - 09:55 | Tim Kelly talking to Tom Anderson | Armchair chat | |
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| 09:55 - 10:25 | Coffee and Posters | ||||
| 10:25 - 10:55 |
Meaghan O’Neil, Russell Lock, Loughborough University Patrick Baker, Tim Watson |
Preliminary Findings of Practitioner’s Perspectives on AI Adoption in Engineering Processes: An Exploratory Study in Engineering Practices | |
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| 10:55 - 11:25 | Oscar Slotosch Validas AG |
An AI-Based Tool Chain Vision for the Development of Safety Critical and Compliant Systems | |
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| 11:25 - 11:55 | Ben Fulford, Thomas Wilkinson, Matt Wylie, Luke Hankins BMT |
AI-assisted HAZOP: Can prompt engineering deliver a credible HAZOP assessment? | |
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| 11:55 - 12:55 | Lunch |
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| Session: AI & Autonomy 2 Chaired by Carmen Carlan |
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| 12:55 - 13:25 | Anne Seldon Consultant |
Exploring the Role of Large Language Models in the Development of Safety Concepts | |
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| 13:25 - 13:55 | Shaun Feakins, Ibrahim Habli and Phillip Morgan University of York |
What’s Your Context? Assuring GPAI in Safety-critical Settings | |
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| 13:55 - 14:25 | Joshua Riley, Kez Smithson Whitehead and Matt Wylie BMT |
Towards predictive accident prevention: can retrieval augmented generation powered artificial intelligence inform preventative mitigation? | |
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| 14:25 - 14:55 | Tea and Posters | ||||
| 14:55 - 15:25 | Adam Casey1, Malav Naik2, Simon Diemert1, Nader Abu El Samid2, Jeffrey Joyce1, Emmanuel Lesser2, Paul Grouchy2 1 Critical Systems Labs Inc 2: MDA Space |
AI-Enabled Monitoring of Space Robotics Telemetry | |
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| 15:25 - 15:55 | Bernard Twomey Kongsberg Maritime |
Maritime Autonomy – Are we making progress? | |
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| 15:55 - 16:30 | Keynote: Phil Koopman CMU |
Overview of Embodied AI Safety | |
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| 16:30 - 1635 | Mike Parsons SCSC |
Closing Remarks | |||
The full symposium proceedings "AI and Safety Critical Systems" is available to SCSC members for download here.
Resources are available below for SCSC members.
Separate presentations, videos and papers from the event can also be accessed through the website resources pages.
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To get a flavour of what attending SSS is like, please see the SSS'25 Highlights Video and the SSS'25 web page at: https://scsc.uk/e1099 where members can also find the event resources.
Event Information
| Event Date | 10/02/2026 10:00 am |
| Event End Date | 12/02/2026 5:00 pm |
| Cut Off Date | 10/02/2026 |
| Individual Price | From £80 per day (see details) |
| Location | The Milner Hotel |