Safety Case Workshop

In January 2013, a two-day Safety Case Workshop was conducted in Huntsville, Alabama under the sponsorship of the SAE International G-48 System Safety Committee and A-P-T Research, Inc. (APT). Attendees from industry, government and academia participated, with several making formal presentations on various safety methods. Industry focus is turning to international pursuits, which involve a broader understanding of different approaches to ensuring safety. The United States has typically used a process-based approach in managing system safety programs, but there is a current movement to use the evidence-based Safety Case approach to validate the safety of systems. At the conclusion of the workshop, participants reached the consensus view that the Safety Case approach merits being accepted among the best world-wide system safety practices

President's Message: State of the International System Safety Society

Our Conference in St. Louis, Missouri has come to a close and by all measures it was a success. We had good speakers, excellent technical papers, opportunities for training on timely topics and great social events that afforded excellent networking opportunities. It was profitable for the Society. These are important measures of success for the Society and its membership. We come together each year to present new ideas, to learn and develop professionally, and to build relationships within our industry that help us all succeed

President's Message: Diversity

I’ve been wondering what to write for this issue’s President’s Message, and the Journal of System Safety editor has been reminding me to get this done. I finally settled on a topic that encompasses professional development, day-to-day work and the running of the Society. So, how does “diversity” do this? In professional development, diverse experiences add to the value of the professional. This past fall, I had the opportunity to teach at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. I taught two classes: One was system safety engineering and the other was reliability engineering. I’ve taught the system safety course a number of times, and the material was familiar. My students included international students, engineers working in aerospace and medical equipment, and others. Not working specifically in the system safety field, the students probed topics and asked questions that brought a different perspective to the material. These perspectives force us to re-examine the topic and often cause us to reach new, or more developed, views of system safety

President's Message: The Value of a Mentor

At the core of any professional society is the charge to aid the membership in its professional development. A few years ago, our Society created the position of director of mentoring, research and development. Currently, Steve Mattern serves that role. Steve took on the program initiated by Mike Allocco and has established the mentoring program. He is now seeking members interested in participating, including mentors, as well as mentees. I believe that participating in a mentoring program is a tremendous benefit to any person’s professional development

Electronic and steric properties of stable silylene ligands in metal(0) carbonyl complexes

A series of stable silylene-transition metal complexes have been synthesized by substitution of silylenes 1 and 2 for carbonyl ligands in simple metal carbonyl complexes: M(1)2(CO)4 and M(2)2(CO)4 (M=Cr, Mo, W), Fe(1)(CO)4 and Ru(1)2(CO)3. X-ray crystal structures are reported. Infrared and NMR spectroscopy were used to probe the electronic properties of stable silylene ligands. Based on these data, the stable silylene 1 behaves electronically very much like triaryl phosphines. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V