Risk Assessment and Management of Engineering Systems

Key Faculty: Yacov Y. Haimes, James H. Lambert

Area Description: Risk and uncertainty are ever present in the actions of human beings and they are frequently magnified in large-scale technological systems. Risk and uncertainty must be managed effectively to protect people from injury and to permit the development of reliable, high-quality products. Organizations that successfully address the risk and uncertainty caused by future product designs, resource availability, natural forces, market changes, and the reliability of man/machine/software systems will dominate the technological world. Today an ever-increasing number of professionals and managers in industry, government, and academia are devoting a larger portion of their time and resources to the task of improving their approach to, and understanding of, risk-based decision-making. Risk management must be an integral part of the management of technology-based systems, where the failure of the system can be contributed by the hardware, the software, the organization, or the humans. Furthermore, the education of future engineers and scientists would be incomplete without knowledge of risk management and its applications to societal and industrial competitiveness, environmental protection, and public safety.
Potential Courses:
SYS 614Risk and Decision Analysis
SYS 721Research Methods in Systems Engineering
SYS 754Multi-objective Optimization
SYS 775Forecast-Decision Systems
APMA/NE 618Reliability and Risk Analysis
APMA 643Statistics for Engineers and Scientists
EE 734Reliable Digital Design and Analysis
EE 611Probability and Stochastic Processes
CE 632Project Management
CE 535/635Transportation Systems Planning and Analysis
CE 637Traffic Systems Management
CE 640Wastewater Treatment
CE 641Water Quality Modeling
CE 643Theory of Groundwater Flow and Contaminant Transport
CE 644Water Chemistry for Environmental Engineering
CE 653Hydrology
CE 656Environmental Systems Analysis
CHE 674Process Design and Economics
GBUS 890Management Decision Models
GBUS 884Innovation and Technology Management
MAE 667Introduction to Manufacturing System
MAE 668Advanced Manufacturing Technologies
STAT 513Applied Multivariate Statistics
STAT 514Survival Analysis and Reliability Theory
STAT 515Actuarial Statistics
STAT 517Applied Time Series
STAT 720Advanced Probability Theory for Applied Scientists
MATH 509Mathematical Probability
MATH 511Stochastic Processes
ECON 509/510Introduction to Mathematical Economics
ECON 572Introductory Econometrics
PLAN 550Natural Systems and Environmental Planning
PLAN 553Environmental Policy and Planning
PLAN 555Environmental Impact Assessment
PLAN 605Quantitative Planning Analysis
Example Concentration Areas

A student interested in any area has the ability to customize his course selection to fit his concentration. Possible concentrations within risk assessment and management of engineering systems include:

Job Opportunities

Aerospace and transportation engineering, health and environmental protection, regulatory and public policy, technology management, water resources and environmental engineering, credit and banking, systems analysis and engineering, safety and reliability engineering.