New Techniques for Hazard Identification

This 1-day event will look at a variety of Hazard ID techniques (Hazop, analyses, etc) and see how they can be tailored and extended for new situations.

It will specifically look at the use of AI supported techniques to generate hazard lists. 

There will be a spread of speakers from various sectors, likely including defence, aerospace and healthcare.

Speakers include:

 

Rudi (Redford-Brown) Hennessy, NHS England - TBA

 

Barry Hebron, Teeside University - AI tools to introduce hazard identification techniques to software engineering apprentices from wide range of industries

I began my hazard identification journey back in the 1990s, working for MoD PE as an independent critical friend during the development of Defence Standards 00-56 and 00-58. For a few years, I was also a disciple of Professor McDermid and Tom Anderson, Emeritus Professor at Newcastle University. I will never forget Tom introducing me to red wine in Bordeaux. For the past 25 years or so, I have focused on supporting local industry in Teesside, leading to my current position as Associate Professor Enterprise at Teesside University. Over those years, I have been privileged to observe hazard and loss identification practitioners in action—watching, listening and learning what works, and what does not translate successfully from the classroom and the standards into the workplace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abstracts

Barry Hebron, Teeside University - AI tools to introduce hazard identification techniques to software engineering apprentices from wide range of industries

A range of AI tools has helped introduce software engineering apprentices (across a wide range of industries) to hazard identification techniques. This has had two consequences: i) the apprentices have adopted HAZOP, STPA and FRAM, applying them both before and after graduation in non-critical workplace contexts as general-purpose cognitive tools, and ii) the apprentices — now advocates for AI-assisted hazard analysis — have demonstrated that AI makes these techniques easier to learn and apply, and quicker to produce useful insights. Subsequently this has made it easier to secure support from their line managers, dispelling previous doubts about the techniques’ relevance and cost-effectiveness. This short presentation will: a) Outline that journey, b) summarise the range of AI applications used, and c) highlight one specific approach, skill orchestration, that is particularly easy to adopt and apply.