Master of Engineering - Advanced Safety Engineering and Management
Curriculum Overview
ASEM_05_graduation
Total credit hours: 33
(12 technical/engineering hours, 15 leadership/best business practice hours and 6 capstone ASEM development hours)

Total courses: 11
(nine 3-hour courses and two 3-hour capstone course)

Minimum graduation time: 5 semesters
(approximately 18 months)

Program Launched: August, 2010


TECHNICAL CORE

EGR 610: Introduction to System Safety - Prevention through Design (This introductory course provides an overview and is required in the first semester.)
  • Technical Content
  • Basics of hazard analysis and risk assessment
  • Design strategies for life cycles and acceptable, residual risk hierarchy
  • Introduction to probabilistic risk analysis and the safety decision hierarchy
  • Introduction to reliability and maintainability
  • System safety procedures in procurement and change review processes
  • Techniques for safety audits, gap analyses, and root cause investigation
  • Management’s roles and responsibilities in system safety management plans
  • Assessments
  • Individual projects (3) specific to the student’s individual workplace environment
  • Discussion Board participation
  • Live Classroom participation
EGR 611: Hazard Analysis and Waste Elimination Technical Content (techniques covered in class with assigned exercises; quantitative risk assessment matrices are used)
  • Technical Content
  • Preliminary Hazard List (PHL)
  • Preliminary Design Hazard Analysis (PHA)
  • Detailed Design Hazard Analysis (SSHA, FMEA)
  • System Design Hazard Analysis (SHA)
  • Operations and Support Hazard Analysis (O&SHA)
  • Human Design Hazard Analysis (HHA)
  • Safety Requirements/Criteria Analysis (SRCA)
  • Software Safety Assessment (SSA)
  • Introduction to Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)
  • Assessments
  • Group projects with application of PHL, PHA, SSHA, and SHA to the BP Texas City Refinery explosion
  • Individual project with application of PHL, PHA, SSHA, and SHA (at a minimum) to a system design in the student’s own workplace environment
EGR 612: Engineering Risk – Assessment, Reduction & Liability
  • Technical Content
  • Decision Trees
  • Event Tree Analysis & Influence Diagrams (utilizing statistical probabilities)
  • Fault Tree Analysis (with Boolean algebraic reduction techniques as well as FTA software)
  • Value and Decision Models
  • Business Impact Analysis (cost-benefit calculations)
  • Common Cause Failure Analysis
  • Cause Consequence Analysis
  • Sneak Circuit Analysis
  • Hazard and Operability Analysis
  • Root Cause and MORT Analysis
  • Assessments
  • Individual project: Risk Mitigation Decision Analysis (must include FTA)
  • Discussion Board participation
  • Live Classroom participation
  • Midterm and Final Examinations (quantitative)
EGR 613: Human Performance and Engineering Design
  • Technical Content
  • Solid Mechanics (quantitative, with basic calculus concepts) - Newton's Laws, Vector Resolution and Equilibrium Equations
  • Functional anatomy – structure, function and mechanical tolerance
  • Mechanical work capacity
  • Bioinstrumentation for occupational biomechanics
  • Static and dynamic models in occupational biomechanics
  • Manual material-handling limits
  • Biomechanical considerations in machine control & workplace design
  • Guidelines for whole body & segmental vibration
  • Assessments
  • Individual project: biomechanical injury reconstruction/incident investigation
  • Discussion Board participation
  • Live Classroom participation
  • Weekly exercises, including analytical problems

LEADERSHIP AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT CORE

EGR 614: Crossroad – Engineering Ethics and Acceptable Risk
  • Content
  • Why professional ethics?
  • Responsibility in safety engineering
  • Framing problems
  • Conflict resolution
  • Trust and reliability
  • The social and value dimensions of technology
  • Risk and liability in engineering
  • Engineers and organization culture
  • Engineers and the environment
  • Assessments
  • Individual projects (3) related to defining acceptable risk within the context of the Engineering Code of Ethics
  • Discussion Board participation
  • Live Classroom participation
EGR 615: Leading through Climates of Change
  • Content
  • Drift into Failure Model (J. Rasmussen)
  • Swiss Cheese Model (J. Reason)
  • The 8-Stage Process to Organizational Change (J. Kotter)
  • Auditing Resilience
  • Assessments
  • Discussion Board participation
  • Live Classroom participation
  • Midterm and Final Examinations
EGR 616: Policy Issues in Prevention through Design
  • Content (changes each semester relative to current events)
  • The regulatory rulemaking process
  • Global harmonization of safety regulations
  • Maritime and transportation safety
  • Business practice policies – taxation, insurance & liability
  • Advocacy vs. Lobbying in shaping public policy
  • Assessment
  • Individual project: Public policy communication (for submission to federal docket)
  • Discussion Board participation
  • Live Classroom participation
EGR 617: Crisis Leadership and Safety-Critical Design
  • Content (financial models are required)
  • Introduction to business continuity and crisis leadership
  • Business impact analysis
  • Multilateral continuity planning
  • Project initiation and control
  • Marketing protection
  • Communication strategies
  • Awareness, training and coping with people in recovery
  • Developing and implementing a business continuity response
  • Business continuity management audit and management review
  • Assessments
  • Individual project: Each student conducts a business impact analysis in his or her own workplace
  • Discussion Board participation
  • Live Classroom participation
EGR 618: Intrapreneurship and Calculated Risk Taking
  • Content
    • Introduction to intrapreneurial concepts
    • Six stages of business life
    • Discovery skills of associating, questioning, observing, networking and  experimenting
      • Medici effect
      • Socratic Method
      • Idea network
      • Calculated risk with new safety products and services
      • Scientific Method
    • Recognize and develop intrapreneurial successes
    • Manage intrapreneurial risk
  • Assessments
    • Two individual project assignments
    • Discussion Board participation
    • Live Classroom participation
EGR 619: Capstone Project - Part 1: Development of an Advanced Safety Engineering and Management Plan (This 3-credit class must be taken in the penultimate or final semester of the ASEM graduate track.)
  • Technical Content
  • The project must demonstrate mastery of all subject material in the ASEM curriculum
  • The project must be directly relevant to the student's own workplace environment
  • Assessments
  • Written documents including proposal, outline, schedule and rough draft of ASEM plan and attachments
  • Oral presentations of material to class and faculty
EGR 620: Capstone Project - Part 2: Development of an Advanced Safety Engineering and Management Plan (This 3-credit class must be taken in the penultimate or final semester of the ASEM graduate track.)
  • Technical Content
  • The project must demonstrate mastery of all subject material in the ASEM curriculum
  • The project must be directly relevant to the student's own workplace environment
  • Assessments
  • Written documents including final draft of ASEM plan and all attachments
  • Oral presentation of completed project highlights to class and faculty