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Failure of critical computer systems could result in death, injury, financial loss and damage to the environment. To help address this concern, academic staff at City University London have developed an approach to assurance case construction to demonstrate that the risk posed by critical computer systems is acceptably low. Initially the primary focus was the justification of safety-related systems in UK industry (i.e., by introducing more structure and rigour) but it has been extended to cover other aspects such as reliability and security and has been taken up internationally. This approach has been commercialised by a company with close links to City University London (Adelard LLP). The approach is used in critical areas including:
Industry feedback has been positive and our assurance approach, in the form of updated regulations and procedures, has been adopted as standard practice in these sectors. This has led to significant and wide-ranging impact on practice and the consequent safety and security of systems, benefiting both the industries concerned and the public who use or are affected by their services.
Research on the theoretical and experimental assessment of the stability of damaged ships in the Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from the mid-1990s to the present day has been pivotal in the development, adoption and implementation of the latest amendment of the International Convention on Safety of Life At Sea (SOLAS 2009) by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the UN body regulating maritime safety. The impact of these regulations has been a significant reduction in the risk to human life at sea by enabling ship design and operation with higher standards of damage stability. SOLAS 2009 represents a step change from deterministic to probabilistic rules and from rule compliance to goal-based standards; it has improved design and operation of all commercial ships built worldwide from 2009, and has thus resulted in far-reaching and long-lasting impact on maritime safety.
Research in the Centre for Software Reliability (CSR) at City University London has made significant advances in ways to assess the safety and reliability of safety-critical, fault-tolerant software-based systems. This work supports quantitative safety cases and has influenced practice and regulation in UK and international industries. [text removed for publication] The work has had significant benefit for regulators and licensees of UK nuclear plant, has been recognised in the US nuclear industry and is additionally of benefit to the general public, in ensuring not only that reasoning about the safety of nuclear plant is rigorous and valid, but also that it is seen to be so in order that safety claims are widely and justifiably believed.
The European Air Traffic Management system currently handles around 26,000 flights daily, with ultimate responsibility for the lives of almost 800 million passengers and crew every year. Professor Chris Johnson's research has directly influenced policy, legislation and regulation across Europe's air traffic control, including the current guidelines on software development in Air Traffic Management, which were incorporated into European law in 2008. He has led the way in harmonising computer infrastructure standards across different agencies throughout the EU, building defences against cyber-attacks and playing a vital role in improving passenger safety.
Research at Newcastle University on formal methods for the design of computing systems has had a major impact on the delivery of new high-dependability products by industry. The methods (VDM and Event-B), to which we have made significant contributions, have been embodied in tools (VDMTools, Overture, Rodin) and applied in industry. The reach of the work extends to industries in Europe (e.g. in the rail sector by Siemens, 2011) and Japan (e.g. in firmware design by Sony, 2008). Significance is seen in reported improvements in defect detection rates of up to a factor of 5 over previous processes and the cost-effectiveness of design processes. The "Mobile FeliCa" chip developed using VDMTools is now incorporated into over 200 million mobile phones worldwide. Our approach to disseminating research has engendered lively international and online end-user communities further developing and using the tools today.
Developed from Loughborough University research into the employee impact of safety management, the Loughborough Safety Climate Assessment Toolkit (LSCAT) has helped change attitudes and raise awareness across a variety of industry sectors. Freely available in the public domain, it has facilitated the assessment of safety climate as part of a process of culture change and wider management system enhancement. Beneficiaries during the impact period have included the Royal College of Nursing and the NHS, which have used the tool as a "fundamental" means of benchmarking best practice, and logistics giant DHL Supply Chain, which has used it to identify specific areas for improvement in its safety management systems.
Led by Professor Andrews, a computational method for real time mission planning, based on Binary Decision Diagrams (BDD), was developed in the Mathematical Sciences Department at Loughborough University (LU) from 1993-2003. This is fast and accurate and can be used to support decision-making on system utilisation in real-time operation, which has led to the ability to diagnose in flight faults for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) applications.
The research has changed the understanding and awareness of the advantages of BDD, resulting in integration into major industrial trials and proprietary software products, including at BAE Systems, one of the world's largest companies in an area of vital importance to UK security and economic development. The methodology has attracted significant research funding in collaborative programmes with industry.
In response to the University's strategy on improving standards in professional practice, several research projects were undertaken in health and safety management, procurement, transport planning, energy management, and professional practice. These focused on improving standards of professional practice in construction management, energy management, facilities management, and sustainable transportation planning. Two projects resulted in sector guidance, whilst two others had a direct impact on practice in the University. Another has influenced the way cycling use data is collected by the two leading organisations in this sector. This case study demonstrates the impact on professional practice linked to the university's vision.
Embedded software in the transportation sector (railway, automotive and avionics) needs to meet high reliability requirements because errors may have severe consequences. Research since 2008 in the UoA has developed effective reasoning technology to provide assurance that key error types are eliminated from embedded software, and has created novel algorithms to prove its integrity. Major players such as [text removed for publication] GM and Airbus have used technology developed in the UoA to verify the absence of errors. A particular advantage of this technology is its ability to reason about floating-point arithmetic, meaning that a much wider class of properties can be verified. The technology is widely distributed via third party operating systems and tool-sets.
Research at the Transport Safety Research Centre (TSRC) at Loughborough University has led to the development of a new road safety data and knowledge base called the European Road Safety Observatory (ERSO). The European Commission has confirmed in a reference that it has become a standard tool for EU and national level safety policy development and has been praised by the European Parliament. Since being established in 2006 it has been emulated at national level by many EU Member States including the UK, Spain, Czech Republic, Netherlands and France. The ERSO website now receives over 5000 hits each month from road safety policy-makers across the EU. The research, which was led by TSRC researchers, was conducted between 2004 and 2012 and in 2013 was awarded the HRH Prince Michael International Road Safety Award for its impact on road safety.