The Australian Computer Society

Sponsored by the ACS's Technical Committee on Safety Critical Systems.

The Australian Computer Society's Technical Committee on Safety Critical Systems held its 6th National Workshop on Safety Critical Systems and Software (SCS 2001) in Brisbane on 6 July 2001. The full-day workshop consisted of a series of practical experience reports and an expert panel discussion session.

This year's workshop featured a keynote address by international software safety expert Professor John McDermid, University of York, UK. Professor McDermid will also delivered a one-day course on "Requirements for Safety Critical Systems: Challenges and Strategies" in Brisbane on Thursday July 5th.

This year's workshop papers included reports on design of user interfaces for safety-critical systems, a safety-critical railways application, integrated modular avionics, defence procurement practices for safety-critical systems, risk analysis for airspace design, and new Australian regulation of medical devices containing software.

Click here for the workshop proceedings.

The panel discussion was on how well the "As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP)" principle applies to software systems.

The ACS held similar workshops in Brisbane in 1996, in Sydney in 1997, in Adelaide in 1998, in Canberra in 1999 and Melbourne in 2000. Each event attracted more than 35 participants nationally and internationally.

For questions about the SCS 2001 Workshop Program, please contact:

Copies of the previous proceedings are available for $95 from R2A (phone +61 3 9329 7822).

On-line outputs from previous workshops:

• SCS'00 workshop in Melbourne
• SCS'99 workshop in Canberra
• SCS'98 workshop in Adelaide
• the tutorial on formal methods from SCS'98
• SCS'97 workshop in Sydney
• a report on the SCS'97 panel discussion on software safety standards
• copies of the SCS'97 papers