Safety and Risk Management (Distance Learning Only) – (M.Sc.)

Contents

The MSc/Postgraduate Diploma in Safety and Risk Management is only available by attendance-free distance learning. The programme comprises eight courses. All courses have written examinations and some have compulsory coursework elements. MSc students are also required to complete a 5 month individual project (dissertation). For distance learners unable to commit to a full time project, the duration will be extended as appropriate.

For the project component of the programme distance learners are likely to develop something based in their country of residence with advice and supervision from staff in the School. This may well include work with a local company or may involve independent study. Individual arrangements will be set up with each student.

Course Choice

* Risk Assessment and Safety Management

This courses aims to give students an appreciation of risk from individual and societal perspectives as well as understanding the basic principles of risk assessment and modelling and how safety management works in practice. Subjects include:

The concept and perceptions of hazards and risk. Risk attitudes and impact on decision-making; Interpretations of probability; Quantitative and qualitative aspects of risk; Modelling of decision making under conditions of risk; Inherent Safety; HAZOP; Safety management systems such as BS EN ISO 14000 series and other standards; Application of Safety Management Systems to failed systems and as a preventative tool.

* Risk Mapping and Analysis using GIS

This course will develop skills to identify risks linked to locations; map risk; analyse the effects of the risks on crucial infrastructure; and manage the data. The course will cover:

Basic skills of geographical information systems (GIS) using open sources GIS desktop applications (gvSIG); Basic skills in data management using open source database management systems (DBMS) software (Postgres/PostGIS); Hazard mapping; Incident mapping; Hazard detection; Risk assessment; Effect of risks on infrastructure/business; Develop strategies to minimise hazards/risks

* Human Factors Methods

This course will equip students from academic and/or industrial backgrounds with knowledge on, and the means to deploy, a wide range of specialist human factors techniques. The emphasis is on method selection, application, combination and integration within existing business practices. Students will develop a critical awareness of what methods exist, how to apply them in practice and their principle benefits and limitations. The syllabus includes:

Introduction to human factors problems and human factors methods; Task analysis; Cognitive task analysis; Human error identification; Situation awareness assessment; Mental workload assessment; Team assessment; Interface analysis; Design methods; Performance time prediction; Method integration; Human factors integration

* Human Factors in the Design and Evaluation of Control Rooms

The course will equip students from academic and/or industrial backgrounds with in-depth knowledge on, insights into, and the means to deploy a wide range of specialist techniques relevant to the ergonomic design and evaluation of control rooms. The emphasis is on key areas of control room operations and on actionable ways to deploy theory on human capabilities and limitations in order to improve performance, safety, efficiency and overall operator well being. The course covers the following key areas:

Introduction to humans and control rooms; Competencies; Training; Procedures; Communication processes; Manning and workload; Automation; Supervision; Shift patterns; Control room layout; Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA); Alarms; The control room environment.

* Fire Safety, Explosions and Process Safety

Introduces students to the basic principles of fire safety science and engineering, and develops skills in associated modelling leading to an understanding of principal fire/explosion related issues in process safety. Subjects include:

Objectives of fire safety science and engineering; Fire chemistry: stoichiometric burning, ignition, flammability limits; Mechanisms of heat transfer; The burning process; flashpoint, firepoint, flame spread; Fires in enclosures; computer-based models of fire development. Flashover & backdraught; Life threat, human behaviour, evacuation; Fire severity & fire resistance. Probabilistic modelling; Explosions: deflagrations, detonations, fire-balls; Fire related aspects of process safety. Piper Alpha disaster.

* Environmental Impact Assessment

Provides the candidate with the knowledge and understanding of the principles and processes of the Environmental Impact Assessment. By the end of the course, the student should be familiar with the European EIA legislation and its translation into the Scottish planning system, and be able to demonstrate an understanding of the EIA process, the tools and the agents involved in an EIA and the possible problems with using EIA as a decision making tool. . It is also intended that the student will be able to appreciate the purpose of the EIA process from a number of perspectives; that of a developer, an EIA practitioner and a policy maker. The course plan includes:

Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment; European EIA Legislation; Screening and Scoping; Baseline Studies, Analysis and Prediction of Impact; Consultation, Review and Monitoring; Beyond EIA: Strategic and Social Impact Assessment

* Project Management Theory and Practice

Provides students with an understanding of the concepts and practices of construction project management used to provide value added services to clients within the constraints of time, cost, quality sustainability and health and safety management.

* Learning from Disasters

Gives students an in depth understanding of some of the classic disasters and their consequences by using a range of practical accident investigation techniques. Students will learn to analyse complex histories in order to find the underlying root cause. Topics covered:

Accident models; Root cause and accident analysis techniques concentrating on events and causal factors analysis, barrier analysis, change analysis and the management oversight and risk tree; Review a number of famous disasters including Piper Alpha, Herald of Free Enterprise, Bhopal, Clapham Junction etc.; Identify lessons learned from these disasters; Review some of the major safety lessons from historical disasters; Analyse a real disaster in detail using a number of practical techniques

Accreditation

This degree is accredited as meeting the requirements for Further Learning for a Chartered Engineer (CEng) for candidates who have already acquired an Accredited CEng (Partial) BEng (Hons) undergraduate first degree.

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About the Programme Director

Pauline Thompson has been working on our safety MScs since 2002. She teaches three of the courses on each of the two safety programmes, has contributed to most of the other courses within the two programmes and supervises many of the student dissertations on these programmes. Her research includes many aspects of risk analysis and sustainability with applications in civil engineering.

Pauline has a BSc in Geology and a PhD in Experimental Mineralogy from Edinburgh University. Her PhD studies led her into the materials science of geological materials in the upper mantle. As a result she then moved to Solid State Physics at Glasgow University to work on permanent magnets. After two years in Glasgow she returned to Edinburgh University to study geological materials both from the lower crust and from hydrocarbon reservoirs.

Since 1998 Pauline has also worked part-time for the Open University as an Associate Lecturer. She has taught on two final year degree level courses entitled "Understanding the Continents" and "Sedimentary Processes and Basin Analysis" and a second level course in "Geology".

Through her work with the OU she completed a Masters course on Teaching and Learning in Higher Education and became a member of the Higher Education Academy.

In 2002 she moved to the School of the Built Environment at Heriot-Watt to develop and improve postgraduate courses in Safety Engineering, Mathematics and Civil Engineering. She is now a Teaching Fellow in the School teaching a number of postgraduate courses in Safety Engineering and Sustainability and parts of the undergraduate Civil Engineering programme.