STUDIES IN SAFETY ENGINEERING –
CURRENT STATUS AND DEVELOPMENT
POSSIBILITIES
Radkowski S.
Warsaw University of Technology, Institute of Machine Design Fundamentals, Warszawa, Poland
.Abstract: The paper substantiates the necessity for creating full – time Master’s Degree studies in Safety Engineering in Poland. First, the author addresses the economic and social conditions and then the training objectives are discussed. The next part of the paper presents the syllabuses of universities in different countries and career opportunities for future safety engineers.
1. Introduction
The conclusions from the 2000 European Summit in Lisbon underscore the need for more dynamic development of the economy whose efficiency should be supported by the knowledge community. During the next meeting of European leaders in Gothenburg in 2001, the participants stressed the numerous aspects of harmonious development, including the relation between the economy and health, environmental protection and employment level as well as the associated need for modernization of the industry so as to improve the efficiency, quality and safety [1]. According to Eurostat research [2] there were as many as 7.6 million accidents at work in the fifteen “old European Union” countries in 2001 and they claimed 4900 fatalities. The calculations show that 30 major catastrophes occur yearly in the branches of industry covered by Seveso 2 Directive. The cost of these accidents exceeds 1.5 billion Euro. At the same time attention is drawn to the fact that safety is not only the basis for quality of living but also the main factor determining the economy’s ability to reach the expected levels of efficiency and competition. Each interruption of the production-and-transport chain has specific consequences, it sometimes disrupts industrial operations all over the Union whose economy is increasingly inter-related. Harmonization of the economic policy and logistic solutions across the entire European Union is becoming indispensable in order to accomplish these goals, particularly in the New EU countries. This policy should account for the possibility of involving social experts in the decision-making process and for increasing the importance of the public opinion in shaping the safety and environmental
protection. What is important from this point of view is to consolidate the awareness that each human activity is associated with residual technical risk. Thus it is important to make the decision-making process transparent and accessible for the society. This last requirement points to the need for introducing and developing the ethics of technical risk as well as the safety culture which will enable explaining of the risk-related issues and describing the benefits that such an approach to these issue will bring for the society and the economy. This means the possibility of conducting the governing process while accounting for the risk, especially as regards the government’s decisions on epidemiological threats, new technologies, including genetically-modified food, strategic impact of climatic changes, natural and technical disasters, levels of acceptable technical risk, relationship between the level of technical risk and implementation of new technologies. The purpose of the activities presented in the study entitled Strategic Research Agenda [1] is to introduce by 2020 a new paradigm and as extensive as possible adoption of this paradigm in European industry and transport. Such an approach sees safety as the key success factor for the business and an inherent element of technical activities. Safety understood this way will have progressive and tangible impact on reduction of the number of accidents at work, cases of industrial disease, environmental incidents and production loss associated with accidents. It is expected that the strategy of “incident elimination” will lead to introduction of safety issues to design, repair and maintenance procedures, to operational and management activities at all levels of industrial and transport companies..
Introduction of technical risk management to support the harmonious European industry calls for coordination of research activities and application efforts and also for accounting for the interactions between the proper use of technical knowledge and development of social awareness.
Similarly the goal of a US institution called Institute for Safety Through Design (established 1995) is to make the deliberations on safety an integral part of the process of designing and developing of systems intended for use by man so that the task of minimizing the risk of industrial disease or damage to environment is resolved at all levels of the design process. The essence of this approach is to introduce the assessment of the risk of all identified threats to the design process, determine the acceptable risk levels in all stages of a product’s lifecycle, from the conceptual stage all the way through to scrapping and processing. This means that similarly as in the formula preferred in the European Union changes in terms of cultural attitudes are indispensable in many economic-and-social structures.
While referring here to the basic definition of the culture, being a set of perceptions, values, beliefs and presumptions which determine an individual’s perception of the surrounding reality and determine his/her behavior, one becomes aware of the difficulties associated with an attempt of shaping the modern view on technical safety issues. Thus
attempts are being made more and more often to relevantly shape the university syllabuses. One can point to numerous universities, which developed such syllabuses, although they started from various points of view as regards threats to safety and they responded to different, mainly local needs. It seems that by taking the advantage of new opportunities offered by the new Act on University Education it is worth to indulge in the discussion on the possibilities of developing in Polish universities of studies in safety engineering.
2. External requirements, preferred solutions
Access to advanced technologies and the work standards related to IT environment lead to a situation where a growing number of companies include the issues of safety formation in their programs and often also in their functional procedures. This means that apart from designers, the teams of engineers involved in computer-aided design also include specialists in safety engineering who have the relevant knowledge related to construction and operation of objects and systems. On the other hand the practitioners who deal with safety issues on day-to-day basis will be forced to update their knowledge and additionally acquire new skills in the field of computer-aided design. The obvious profits arising from production of goods and design of technical-and-operational processes that are characterized by reduced intensity of defects, ability of controlling the process of defect occurrence by minimizing the consequences of defects, their extent and the magnitude of loss will be the factors inspiring the boards of companies to implement the safety-shaping programs at the design stage. The associated more widespread use of various software such as CAD, CAE, CAM, PDM (Product Data Management) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) will result in shortening the time to production and growth of production efficiency.
Further quality changes in production management are associated with the progressing globalization process resulting in moving the industrial production to second or third world countries and the related trend of developing of a modular structure of the final product. As a result of these processes the time to production for new models in the automotive industry has been reduced from the typical five years down to 18 months. Virtual prototypes of new or modernized products, analyzed in three-dimensional space, and subjected to functional simulations and destruction tests, will become a factor that will additionally accelerate this process. CATIA (Computer-aided three-dimensional interactive application) is an example of existing algorithms that can be used for realization of such a scope of tasks already at the design stage. It is a software platform that enables obtaining independent solutions at various levels of analysis of the system and its components. It enables automatic generation of three-dimensional drawings of elements and sub-assemblies, analysis of deformation under load, simulation of assembly
and disassembly, development of assembly, operation and repair procedures still at the design stage and their preliminary validation.
Similar qualitative changes can be expected in management and organization systems and procedures and in terms of the quality of equipment at work stations. Development of information technologies will bring about not only changes in terms of the lifestyle but also in terms of forms of employment. More and more people will do design work outside design bureaus, while the growing possibilities of using the Internet for design work will force corporations to revise their existing design-and-management strategies. All these factors increasingly start to contribute to active support by the scientific-and-technical communities in leading countries for the development of university studies in safety engineering. For example in the USA the introduction of classes in risk analysis and risk assessment is promoted at the initiative ISTD. According to the Institute’s experts, during the coming years 50% of engineering school graduates will be able to use computer-aided algorithms enabling one to control the level of technical risk. ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology), the American counterpart of Polish accreditation committees, stressed in the criteria developed for engineers that the syllabus should ensure:
assistance and advice to students in shaping their academic careers and monitoring their progress in studies;
preparing the graduate for effective fulfillment of their professional duties and for a successful professional career;
preparing for development of one’s own professional skills and for the post-graduate constant education.
Thus university graduates should have:
the skill of applying their mathematical, natural science and mechanical engineering knowledge;
the skill of designing and conducting of experiments as well as analyzing and interpreting their results;
the skill of designing of systems, components and processes in line with the requirements;
the skill of identification, formulation and solving of engineering problems; the ability to ethically evaluate professional responsibility;
the skill of effective communication, including drafting of reports, graphical and oral presentation of work results;
the level of knowledge in the fields of social sciences and humanities enabling identification and location of social and global impact of proposed engineering solutions;
the skill of using state-of-the-art engineering tools in engineering practice;
the awareness and the skill of following the developments in the area of latest technologies as well as current professional problems.
While analyzing ABET guidelines and the evaluation procedures preferred by this board, one should stress that the basic purpose of evaluation is not to track the weaknesses of the syllabus and its implementation faults but to continuously work on improving the syllabuses while relying on the assessment of the competence of graduates of the analyzed fields of study. A different method of proceeding has been adopted by Polish accreditation boards which focus on the verification of the degree of implementation of formal guidelines of superior authorities.
Main criteria adopted during the accreditation processes as regards the fulfillment of the requirements for a given field of study concern the minimum requirements in terms of the teaching staff and the syllabus as well as the recommended number of hours for a given level of studies.
At the same time the Report of Activities of University Education Board [3], published in May 2005, indicates that according to the definition contained therein a given field of study is a separate area of education with own, distinct scientific or artistic identity. The characteristics of a field of study should define the profile of a graduate and the scope of knowledge recognized as basic and specialized/dedicated.
The next attachment to the resolution of the Board, which is discussed here, quotes the principles of establishing of new fields of study. Also in this case it is stressed that isolation of a new field of study should stem from a clearly defined need correlated with the development of scientific research or changes taking place in social and economic spheres as well as on the labor market. It is stressed that the teaching standards for a new field of study should contain at least 35% of basic and dedicated courses (the framework content of teaching) that do not coincide with the teaching standards valid at any of other existing fields of studies. In addition The State Accreditation Committee sets the requirement saying that establishing a new field of study could only take place if at least two universities in Poland realize or proceed with educating in the new field of study. The teaching standards for individual fields of study should be developed for two levels: M.Sc. and professional engineer level (at least 3.5 years) or B.Sc. level (3 years). Two potential realizations, B.Sc. and engineering, are planned within one professional standard, they are differentiated by technical or non-technical nature of specialized courses. In addition, the professional nature of the studies is defined by the obligatory practical training and the share of respective courses in individual groups of lectures and laboratories of studies as recommended by FEANI (European Federation of National Engineer Associations), namely: engineering courses – ca. 55%, basic courses – ca. 35%, general courses – ca. 10%. .
To sum up, the teaching standards for a field of study constitute a set of general requirements related to the program of studies and its realization along with a set of general, basic and specialized courses as well as the syllabus content and the minimum number of hours of courses whose completion is obligatory for a given field of study. The guidelines stress that minimum numbers of hours for obligatory courses, along with their
content as defined in the teaching standards, are not the “minimum program of studies” but a common part that should be included in the programs realized by all universities where a given field of study is present (Table 1).
Table 1. Teaching standards for a field of study, groups of courses and minimum requirements in terms of hours of classes: [4]
M.Sc. studies Professional engineeringstudies
A. General courses 270 hrs. 270 hrs.
B. Basic courses 600 hrs. 430 hrs.
C. Specialized courses 860 hrs. 530 hrs.
Total 1730 hrs. 1230 hrs.
Total number of hours for a given
level of studies 3600 ± 100hrs. 2700 ± 100hrs.
The courses and groups of courses indicated as the minimum program (except for physical education) should make up 40% of the total number of hours of classes or ECTS points defined jointly for both levels of studies in a given field. At the same time, the total number of hours assigned to courses covering the minimum program and to obligatory courses being beyond the minimum program, but defined in the syllabus for a given field of study, should not be bigger than 70% of the total number of hours of classes as defined in the standards jointly for both levels of studies in a given field.
3. Examples of syllabuses of safety engineering studies in other
countries
Attempts are made in various countries at introducing first and second degree safety studies in universities. Examples include: Bulgaria (University of Mining and Geology Sofia), Czech (The Faculty of Safety Engineering at VŠB – Technical University of Ostrava), Germany (Bergischen Universität Gesamthochschule Wuppertal), France (Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Ingénieurs de Bourges) and even Australia (School of Safety Science, Faculty of Science, The University of New South Wales, Sydney). Wuppertal University has the most extensive experience in Sicherheitstechnik and it seems that more place should be devoted to discussing the solutions adopted in this school.
The safety engineering syllabus in Bergischen Universität Gesamthochschule Wuppertal [5]:
1st degree (studies for engineers)
Basic courses: Mechanics II, Reliability / Automation Techniques, Thermodynamics / hydro-mechanics, basic management
Mechanical Engineering: ”Machine Construction Fundamentals” module, “Construction” module, “Material Tests” module, “Measurements and Automation of Measurements” module
Safety Engineering: “Road Traffic Safety” module, “Fires and Explosions” module, “Work Safety” module, “Environmental Protection” module,
Management for engineers: Work protection/safety management, Environmental protection management, Hazardous materials management, Risk management, Conflict management, Fire protection management.
By adopting this structure of the syllabus as the basis, further comparisons will relate to dedicated and specialized courses only. Accordingly, the Faculty of Safety Engineering at VŠB – Technical University of Ostrava (Czech Rep.), which consists of two institutes with subsequent ones being in the process of establishment, isolated the following courses and issues related to safety engineering that should be included in the syllabus [6]: Safety Management Institute: Risk analysis, Occupational and environmental safety,
Hazardous substances, Safety of processes and technologies, Protection against explosions, Prevention of failures and emergency/contingency planning, Economic aspects of safety, Protection of people, Protection of substances, Safety management Laboratory for research on risk and risk management being part of the Risk
Management Institute: Risk analysis – methodology and applications, Industrial risk management, Risk related to chemical substances, Development of the continuous education in occupational safety and prevention of major accidents, Human factor and risk of major accidents, Information technologies and risk.
Taking the syllabus of the university in Bourges, France (Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Ingénieurs de Bourges) as the next example [7], the group of dedicated and specialized courses can be described in the following way:
- Analysis: Theory of systems, Functional analysis, Value analysis
- Analysis: Methods and tools of functional safety, Reliability, reparability, readiness, Ergonomics
- Environmental risks: Eco-system-related risk, Toxicological risk assessment, Waste and natural environment, Law and natural environment, Geo-chemistry and soil contamination, Soil contamination, Hydro-geology, Transport of hazardous materials, Physics of the atmosphere, Processing of environment images
- Risk related to industrial systems: Computer-aided forecasting, Development of robotics, Real time systems, IT systems, Diagnosis – (retour d’experience), Development of automation, Functional safety of software systems, Modeling and simulation of critical systems, Biometry and law, Image synthesis and graphical simulation.
- Risk of industrial accidents: Explosions of gases, Explosions of dust, Fire, Explosion combustion.
The considerations presented here point to the need for starting the work on developing a program for safety engineering as a new field of study. This is driven by the directions of economic development, the need for increasing social awareness as regards civilization threats and technical possibilities, risk minimization as well as clearly outlined, dedicated methodology of scientific research. Lack of highly qualified staff able of recognizing the physical phenomena in technical systems while accounting for risk criteria, lack of staff able to develop the relevant methods of threat identification, reduction of threat of accidents and failures and the methods of minimization of damage can become a factor that will substantially restrict the possibilities of Poland’s social-and-economic development. Several elements are distinguished within the structure of teaching standards, including the profile of the graduate, groups of subjects, minimum numbers of hours, requirement of practical training as well as the dedicated content of courses, especially the main content of the teaching program for each of basic and dedicated courses.
The documents developed by the Main Council of University Education indicate that three different methods of measuring the students’ workload (hours) and knowledge are used: percentage share of a given group of courses, limits of hours, numbers of ECTS points. Detailed analysis of the syllabuses proposed by the above mentioned foreign universities points to the possibility of creating of syllabuses of studies for both the first and the second degree of education. While referring to the example of mechanical engineering and assuming that a mechanical engineer needs to be prepared for conducting analyses, carrying out projects and experiments and estimation of effectiveness and safety vs. the level valid for a relevant technical system, one can indicate, without major difficulties, the indispensable minimum of changes and program additions which justify the need for establishing the safety engineering field of study.
One can define in a similar way the features of “distinctive scientific identity” of the field of study to be established since safety engineering is the classical example of inter-disciplinary knowledge while the increasing demand for specialists with such knowledge coming from various institutions and companies confirms the need for establishing such a field of studies.
The author of this paper would like to thank Mr. Roberti Gumiński for his assistance in editing the final form of this paper.
References
1. European Technology Platform: Safety for Sustainable European Industry Growth Strategic Research Agenda www.industrialsafety-tp.org
2. Eurostat, Work and health in the EU, A statistical portrait. Data 1994 – 2002 (2004). 3. Report of activities of the Main Board of University Education in
4. Main Board of University Education: standards of teaching for fields of study, assumptions, materials, documents. Warszawa, 2002 http://www.wggg.pwr.wroc.pl/strGZZ/Standardy_pliki/standardy.html
5. http://www.fgproqu.uni-wuppertal.de/pages/aktuell/MSc-Q-Struktur_dt_fie.pdf 6. http://homen.vsb.cz/~www547/WEB/FBI-EN/FACULTY/ESTABLISH.htm
7. Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Ingénieurs de Bourges: Des risques calculés pour un avenir maîtrise. Année universitaire 2005-2006, ENSI BOURGES.
