Past Work

Methodological work done by members of ERRG has included:

  • Optimization of warning systems
  • Cost-effectiveness of public policies
  • Safety goals for industrial facilities
  • Extension of Probabilistic Risk Analysis methods to include human and organizational factors: the System-Action-Management (SAM) model
  • Managing the trade-offs between productivity and safety
  • Treatment of ambiguity (poorly known risks) in rational decision-making
  • Integration of technical failure risks and organizational failure risks in managing engineering programs: The Advanced Programmatic Risk Analysis (APRAM) model
  • Resource allocation and incentive systems for optimum reliability
  • Early technology assessment of engineered systems
Fields of application have included:
  • Earthquake risk mitigation
  • Management of the safety of dams
  • Chemical plants
  • Nuclear power plants
  • Command and Control systems for national security
  • Offshore oil platforms
  • Space systems (the space shuttle, unmanned spacecraft and launch vehicles)
  • Medical risk (anesthesia and medical devices)
  • Airline safety (maintenance and safety)
  • Processing of intelligence information
  • Assessment of terrorist threats
  • Automotive industry problems
Past doctoral theses in the group have included:
  • C. Claudio: "Design and Evaluation of Warning Systems: Application to Nuclear Power Plants," August 1985.
  • Y. Bonduelle: "Diagnosis and Reconciliation of Expert’s Disagreement," September 1987.
  • D. Davis: "The Effect of Ambiguity on Lottery Preferences," June 1990.
  • P. Fischbeck: "Epistemic Uncertainty in Rational Decisions," December 1990.
  • P. Reagan: "Architecture and Prototype of a Hybrid Decision Support System for Risk Management on Offshore Platforms," June 1993.
  • D. Murphy: "Organizational Aspects of Engineering System Safety," October 1994.
  • M. Baron: "Managing the Tradeoff Between Productivity and Safety: The Case of Nuclear Reactors Outages," January 1996.
  • C. Pugnetti: "Probabilistic Risk Analysis As A Management Tool in the Design Process: Application to Satellite Design," February 1997.
  • L. Lakats: "Designing Human and Technical Systems for the Communication of Critical Information: A Systems Analysis Approach," March, 1997.
  • R. Dillon: "Programmatic Risk Analysis: "Engineering and Management Risk Tradeoffs for interdependent projects," June 1999.
  • M. Sachon: "Strategic R&D Decisions for Critical Systems," March 2000.
  • S. Guikema: "Optimal Resource Allocation in an Engineering Design Team with Asymmetric Information " August 2003.
  • J.B. Pietzsch: "Early Technology Assessment of New Medical Devices and Procedures" July 2004.