The System Safety Engineering course builds upon your knowledge as a safety professional or a supervisor/manager, to develop competence and sharpen skills in the techniques that support hazard discovery, the assessment and control of risk, and in reviewing work of this kind performed by others. You will receive guidance in the management of limited resources for the optimum control of risk.

Training Partner
Teaching Science and Technology, Inc.
Systems Engineering module provided by TSTI, Inc.

Designed primarily for individuals who develop, assemble, test, inspect, approve, transport, store or in some other way handle explosive items or material, the Explosive Safety Course is an overview of hazards inherent to explosive operations; associated safety precautions; and methods to analyze, test and obtain approval for explosive activities. The subjects covered in this 3-day class include:

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Contact Melissa Emery or Heather Daniels @ training@apt-research.com, for course discounts.

Software System Safety Engineering is an integrated combination of Software System Safety (SwSS) and software engineering technologies as applied to system safety. It describes generic SwSS processes adaptable to a variety of customer needs, and is tailorable to specific projects and software development processes. Each course module contains material designed to provide the student with the information and detail needed to understand and apply the material. This course is constantly updated to include new techniques, in-depth processes, and real-life examples. Exercises and quizzes are included to build student confidence when applying software system safety principles.

The course begins with an overview of the learning objectives, the need for SwSS, and a description of the relationship between system safety and SwSS. After a discussion of directives, documents, policies and regulations related to SwSS, the course provides detailed instruction on the SwSS process, including a variety analyses and tools. The instruction concludes with planning details for a SwSS program; hazard identification and tracking; risk assessment, risk reduction, and risk acceptance as applicable to SwSS. In keeping with APT’s commitment to excellence, recent updates to the course include modules titled “Programmable Logic Devices,” “Model-Based Software Safety” and “The Future of Software System Safety.” The newest update to this course is a 4th day that expands on Model-Based Systems Engineering and a demonstration of the Ansys Medini tool by ANSYS. This tool provides an efficient and comprehensive process to document functional failure conditions, hazards, safety requirements, and risk mitigations as part of objective safety evidence.

As a discipline, safety engineering exists in many sectors of our economy, and managing risk is the primary function of the discipline. Practitioners have applied their techniques in aerospace, transportation, explosives, testing, industrial, and chemical operations for decades. More recently, the medical, food service, and environmental sectors have begun establishing practices with similar overarching purpose.

This course provides an overview of the underlying processes used to manage risks and demonstrates the common elements that can be applied to any sector of our economy. The most common of these processes is IARA, an acronym for Identify, Assess, Reduce, Accept. The safety case approach is also presented and benefits reviewed. The necessary understanding begins with the language and math needed to communicate and develop a risk management program. The history of improvements made in management processes is reviewed. Pascalian methods are highlighted.

The first half of this five-day class is applicable to managing safety risks from any and all sectors. The second half focuses on specific practices applicable to system safety, range or launch safety, explosives safety, industrial or OSHA safety, operational safety, reliability, software safety, and quality.

This course is designed for safety engineers at all levels, as well as system engineers, and program and project managers. The beginning safety engineer will learn techniques to identify hazards as risk factors and methods to reduce the risks. The journeyman safety engineer will recognize practices used in their sector, and learn how other sectors apply similar techniques. Systems engineers and managers will gain an understanding of how safety engineering integrates into overall systems engineering, and recognize the importance of the “accept” function within overall management.

Course instructors have over 40 years of experience as practicing safety engineering professionals. They will provide numerous experience-based insights during the course.

This training course is available by request for groups of five or more students. Contact Melissa Emery or Heather Daniels at training@apt-research.com for information regarding availability.

The Reliability Engineering training course is designed for professionals wanting to advance their understanding and knowledge in reliability engineering tools and techniques and their application in technical assessments and special studies. The course includes an introductory module of key definitions, basic statistics, and a review of the basic principles of the reliability engineering discipline, including a description of a reliability case for establishing and managing a reliability engineering program. The rest of the course modules focus on reliability engineering tools and techniques used by engineering professionals throughout government and industry.

The Radiation Safety Basics course is a 1-day training course that is designed as an RSO refresher or an introductory course for a safety professional or a supervisor/manager. The goal of this course is to improve your knowledge about radiation safety. The topics covered in this course include:

• Introduction to Health Physics
• Radiation Fundamentals and Sources
• Contamination Control
• Radiation Protection Standards and Guidelines
• Personnel Dosimetry
• Radiation Detection Instruments
• Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation
• Medical and Industrial Uses of Radiation
• Nuclear Power Systems

Instructor: Keith Rose is a Health Physicist with the Safety Engineering and Analysis Center (SEAC) in Huntsville, AL.  He is a graduate of the University of North Alabama with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and attended graduate studies at Georgia Institute of Technology.  Mr. Rose has over 30 years experience in the Health Physics field.  He worked at the Tennessee Valley Authority for over 10 years before transferring to Redstone Arsenal.  At Redstone Arsenal he served as a Physicist and Health Physicist for the U.S. Army Test, Measurement, and Diagnostic Equipment Activity before accepting a position with the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) Safety Office.  Mr. Rose was responsible for the AMCOM Aviation, Missile, and Operational Radiation Safety Programs worldwide.  He has worked to solve Radiation Safety issues for the Army and the FBI since retiring from the Army.  Mr. Rose is board certified by the American Board of Health Physics.

Course Duration and Format:  This course is available by request for groups of five or more students. Contact Heather Daniels at training@apt-research.com for more information. The course is 8 hours over 1 day, with about 6 hours of lecture and time for students to complete workshop problems or review course materials with the instructor. Class size will be limited to 30 attendees. Attendees of this course will typically be awarded up to 0.5 Continuing Education Units (CEU) upon completion of this course.

Institute of Makers of Explosives Safety Analysis for Risk (IMESAFR) is a probabilistic risk assessment tool used to calculate risk to personnel from explosives facilities. This tool is a supplement to the longstanding American Table of Distances (ATD) and other Quantity/Distance (QD) systems. Whereas QD provides a level of safety based on explosives quantity and distance, IMESAFR determines a level of safety based upon risk. In addition to explosives quantity and distance, IMESAFR uses the donor structure, the activity at the donor, and the structure of the exposed sites to determine the level of safety.

IMESAFR provides a standard TNT-based engine for risk calculations. Most explosives behave in a manner sufficiently similar to TNT to simply scale output of those materials up or down if more or less powerful than TNT (called TNT equivalence), but ammonium nitrate (AN) has a distinct waveform which cannot be approximated with TNT equivalence. Therefore, IMESAFR features a separate AN engine to calculate the risk from AN operations. IMESAFR’s AN Engine is a semi-empirical, physics-based, fast-running model that characterizes AN events based on the AN detonation waveform (built from dedicated AN testing and analysis programs rather than TNT equivalency).

IMESAFR v2.2 training is presented over 3 days with 8 hours of mixed lecture and discussion each day, for a total of 24 classroom hours. Daily class hours are from 8am to 5pm with an hour for lunch and breaks mid-morning and mid-afternoon. A competency test will be given at the end of the course. The purchase of an IMESAFR v2.2 Training Voucher allows the customer to attend training for IMESAFR v2.2. The voucher may be exchanged for a seat at any regularly-scheduled, Huntsville-based IMESAFR v2.2 training course.

IMESAFR Demo Video

The video below will walk through a brief look at what running IMESAFR looks like.

The IMESAFR v2.2 Ammonium Nitrate (AN) Module training provides an overview of AN Engine algorithms, new PES types, and exercises. The IMESAFR v2.2 AN Module is presented in 4 hours of mixed lecture and discussion. Training is typically presented the morning after IMESAFR v2.2 training. Class hours are from 8am to 12pm. A mid-morning break is provided. The purchase of an IMESAFR v2.2 AN Voucher allows the customer to attend training for IMESAFR v2.2 AN Module. The voucher may be exchanged for a seat at any regularly-scheduled, Huntsville-based IMESAFR v2.2 AN Module training course.

Using IMESAFR for American Table of Distances (ATD) Compliance training includes an overview of how IMESAFR v2.2 incorporates the ATD, demonstrating compliance using IMESAFR, and submitting a plat plan for ATF approval. Using IMESAFR for ATD Compliance training is presented in 8 hours of mixed lecture and discussion. Training is typically presented the day after IMESAFR v2.2 training. Class hours are from 8am to 5pm with an hour for lunch and breaks mid-morning and mid-afternoon. The purchase of an IMESAFR v2.2 ATD Compliance Voucher allows the customer to attend training for IMESAFR v2.2 ATD Compliance. The voucher may be exchanged for a seat at any regularly-scheduled, Huntsville-based IMESAFR v2.2 ATD Compliance training course.

As a condition of purchase, all users of IMESAFR must complete training from APT on the usage of the code. To become a certified user, users must demonstrate proficiency at/after the conclusion of training. In order to access the AN engine in IMESAFR, users are required to attend the add-on AN module training.

Cancellation Policy: If you are forced to cancel your reservations after payment of the fee, you will be entitled to transfer to a later class or a 50% refund until two weeks prior to the class date. No refunds are available if requested less than 15 days prior to class date but substitutions can be arranged. If minimum attendance for financial viability is not met, APT reserves the right to cancel the course up to 15 days prior to class date.

If you would like to attend, but are unavailable for the dates listed, or are interested in training at your facility, or want more information about IMESAFR training, contact us @ imesafrtraining@apt-research.com, 256.327.3373.

System Requirements: IMESAFR v2.2 is compatible with Windows® 7, 8, and 10.  An application installer for OS X, Linux, older versions of Windows®, and other operating systems may be available upon request.

Click here for a list of people who have received a certificate of training and training number.

The course is presented over 2 days with mixed lecture and discussion each day. Daily class hours are from 8am to 5pm with an hour for lunch, and mid-morning and mid-afternoon breaks. A competency test will be given at the end of the course. Training participants will need a laptop computer with administrative rights to install the software and run reports.

Contact safertraining@apt-research.com to request access to the registration page.

In accordance with ANSI/IACET 1-2018 Standard for Continuing Education and Training:

APT strictly prohibits the use of any material that contains explicit references of a discriminatory nature based on gender, ethnicity, religion, age, disability, socioeconomic status, and/or sexual orientation. This includes any content that is determined to make or show an unfair prejudicial distinction between different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex. All individuals attending a learning event, including those involved in the development and execution of the learning event (i.e. instructor(s), training coordinator, learners, etc.) are responsible for maintaining this standard.

It is the policy of A-P-T Research, Inc. that those leading a learning event (instructors, guest lectures, etc.) disclose proprietary interest in any products, services, instruments, devices or materials discussed during a learning event. This includes any source of third-party compensation. Leaders of a learning event are required to disclose this information in the form of a verbal announcement at the beginning of the learning event.

Training Cancellation Policy: If you are forced to cancel your reservations after payment of the fee, you will be entitled to transfer the reservation to a later class, 100% refund (minus credit card processing fees) if cancelled 60 days or more prior to the class date, or a 50% refund (minus credit card processing fees) if cancelled 30 days or more prior to the class date. No refunds are available if requested less than 30 days prior to class date, but substitutions can be arranged.

If minimum attendance for financial viability is not met, APT reserves the right to cancel the course up to 15 days prior to class date and a full refund will be provided or reservation may be transferred to another date.