Description

Seminar on Managing Risk in Complex Engineering Systems - An application in nuclear weapon system safety assessment

Co-organizer: IMechE HKB & HKARMS  & HKIE-NE
Supporting Organizer: HKIE - MMNC, HKIE-SSC, HKNS & UCLA Alumni Hong Kong Network

While safety cannot be directly measured, the risks associated with a complex engineering system can be assessed instead to register the safety performance of the system.  Risk has been defined in various ways in different industries, and is often misunderstood.  For a complex engineering system analysis, probabilistic risk analysis is used to answer the following questions:

•                  What can go wrong?
•                  How likely is it that this will happen?
•                  If it happens, what are the consequences?
•                  What are the uncertainties?

The Speaker will discuss the application of risk analysis in system safety assessments using an application in nuclear weapon system safety assessment (WSSA) as an example. Instead of focusing on a fixed location-based engineering system such as a power plant, a risk model can be developed to address the stockpile-to-target sequence (life cycle) of the weapons.  The basic physics and types of nuclear weapons will be addressed for an understanding of the weapon life cycle.  All materials are taken from the public domain.
Speaker's Bio
Dr. Vincent Ho is a career risk management and safety professional with over 35 years of experience in transportation, nuclear, and Defense industries specializing in quantitative risk assessment, fire risk analysis, system safety and assurance, risk-based decision analysis, as well as security analysis.  Dr. Ho actively promotes the applications of risk management in enhancing safety; he is the Founding Chairman of the Hong Kong Association of Risk Management and Safety, and a former Chair of HKIE-SSC, HKIE-MMNC, and Special Projects Subcommittee of IMechE.   Dr. Ho received his BS, MS, PhD, and MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is an Adjunct Professor at the City University of Hong Kong, and also teaches at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology on risk management related subjects.

Fee: free