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Australian Safety Critical Systems Club

Computer systems and embedded computers pervade all aspects of modern daily life, and many implement functions that have the potential to cause death or injury if they do not operate correctly. Some of these systems include emergency service dispatch, car braking, aircraft flight controls railway control and telecommunications systems. These systems are not safe by accident but require safety to be designed into them.

The Australian Computer Society launched a Safety Critical Systems (SCS) Club in on 17 October 2002, in conjunction with the annual SCS workshop being held in Adelaide. Chapter launches were also held in Perth on 10 October 2002, Melbourne on 21 October 2002, Canberra on 25 March and Sydney on 1 July 2003: click here for more details.

The Brisbane launch will be held at 5:30-7:30pm on Tues 26 August at the Conference Room, Level 13, 333 Adelaide Street, Brisbane.

To register, email Barry Snashall (Telephone: 3220 0666; Fax: 3220 0688); Email bsnashall@acslink.net.au). There is a small fee for non-ACS members to cover refreshments. Click here for a pdf flyer.

The club will foster discussion on the design and development of safety critical systems; as well as debate on more philosophical issues of safety standards (e.g. “How safe is safe enough?”).

Specifically, the Club's purpose is to:

Provide a national focus and forum for its members who have an interest in safety-related systems, particularly those systems containing software.
Provide professional club services for all categories of its membership.
Stimulate the active contribution and participation of its members in the development and dissemination of safety-related systems knowledge and to support the activities of the Society.
Foster and support education and training associated with all aspects of safety-related systems.
To provide learned society functions for individuals and industry groups and to provide practice based opinion and advice for the Society.

Membership of the Australian Safety Critical Systems Club is open to anyone involved in design and development of safety critical systems, or people with an interest in safety issues. The club may also appeal to anyone interested in the assurance of dependability - Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety (RAMS). The proceedings of the Workshop and supplementary briefing material will be edited into a Club Handbook.

If you are interested in keeping in touch with the state-of-the-art as regards safety-related systems and RAMS dependability, we urge you to register your interest with the Club. For more information contact the Committee Chair Mr Kevin Anderson (Tel: +61 3 9602 4747 Fax: +61 3 9670 5278 E-mail: kevin.anderson@r2a.com.au) and leave a return address or e-mail.

A draft constitution has been prepared: please send any feedback to George Nikandros.

Back to SCS Workshop Home Page
About the SCS Technical Committee
draft constitution

National launch details