Abstract: Since the events of September 11th 2001, there has been a lot of emphasis placed on increasing the security of our nation’s infrastructure. The federal government has increased spending on homeland security by $14 Billion over pre-September 11th funding levels. Total expenditures on Homeland Security in the 2003 Budget are on the order of $31 Billion dollars. A significant amount of that funding will be spent on securing our transportation infrastructure. Key to spending those dollars wisely will be the development of an adequate risk analysis, mitigation and management plan for each of the various transportation sectors. While the majority of focus has been on the Airline industry, the other elements of the transportation sector (trucking, rail, ship) are at risk to terrorist activity. In order to properly expend those valuable resources, future managers and engineers must understand the components of risk, how to analyze, mitigate, and manage it. Examining the curriculum of the transportation program as well as the curriculum of the other supporting departments in the University, one quickly notices a lack of a formal course on risk modeling, assessment, and management in the design, acquisition, implementation, and operation of these types of systems. Thus, graduates of these programs will be entering their field with a lack of understanding of risk and the tools necessary to model and manage it. The objectives of this effort will be to develop a senior/first year graduate level course on risk analysis. This course will begin with an introduction to systems engineering and an illustration of where and when risk analysis tools are used in the various stages of a systems life cycle. The course will identify methodologies for identifying risk, the role risk plays in each of the different phases of a transportation systems life cycle. Special emphasis will be placed on security risks to the transportation industry. The course will illustrate tools for making decisions under risk, techniques for trading off multiple objectives, as well the probability and statistical tools necessary to build and analyze models that can assist in identifying risks to the systems under study. Applicable case studies from the transportation literature will be developed and utilized in the course to illustrate the various tools and techniques to the students.
Publication Year: 2008
Publication Date: 2008-06-30
Language: en
Type: article
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