APT employee, Leslie Alford, has been invited to be the keynote speaker for The 14th Workshop on Critical Software Systems (14thWOCS2), December 12-13, 2016, in Tokyo, Japan. The purpose of the workshop is to accelerate progress of the techniques concerning the critical software and systems by providing engineers and researchers with an opportunity to exchange information between industry and academia, as well as to share ideas among the different application fields in Japan. For more information about the workshop, please visit http://www.keiso-comm.com/14wocs2/index_e.html

At the 2013 International System Safety Conference (ISSC), the SAE International G-48 System Safety Committee accepted an action to investigate the utility of the Safety Case approach vis-à-vis ANSI/GEIA-STD-0010-2009.  APT offered to organize and host a workshop for that purpose.  Leaders in the field were invited to present at the workshop, and a panel was selected, led by Moderator, John Frost.  Panel presenters included Dave West, SAIC; Don Swallom, U.S. Army AMCOM; John McDermid, Professor of Software Engineering at the University of York, UK; Barry Hendrix, Lockheed Martin; Dr. Homayoon Dezfuli, NASA; Robert Schmedake, Boeing; and Tom DeLong, A-P-T Research, Inc.

The presentations from the workshop are provided below.

Safety Case Workshop Presentations and Findings

• Safety Case Workshop Findings
• The “ANSI” Process for System Safety Assurance
• The MIL-STD Process
• Safety Cases: Purpose, Process and Prospects
• SAE ARP 4761 Process
• Applications of “Safety Case” at NASA
• Safety Case and Software Development
• Define & Compare Flowcharts of Each Method

On May 17 & 18, the APT Safety Engineering and Analysis Center (SEAC) hosted an international workshop to examine safety policies, approaches, and analytical methods used to minimize risk to the public from space launches. The workshop was held in conjunction with the 4th International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS) Conference, which was held May 19-21 at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, AL. Attending the workshop were leading launch safety analysts from the European Space Agency (ESA), the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the US Department of Defense (DoD), and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Office of Space Transportation. The workshop identified many areas of common methodology and similar levels of safety metrics. Planning for the next workshop began.