6th Meeting of the
U.S. Software System Safety Working Group
April 25-27, 2006
Stratton Student Center, MIT, Cambridge, MA USA

The next neeting of the USSSWG will be April 25-27 at the MIT Stratton Student Center. The meeting format will be similar to last year: We will provide a problem for small groups to work on together. This year the problem will be medical. The results of the small groups will be presented to the larger group for comparison and discussion. The example application and questions to be answered will be available before the workshop so attendees can think about them beforehand (although that is not necessary).

We will have an invited speaker, Ed Martell, MDS Nordion Ed Martell holds a degree in physics, is an electrical engineer, and is presently Senior Vice President of Engineering, Development and Compliance at MDS Nordion in Ottawa, Canada. Mr. Martell joined the support staff of AECL Medical in Ottawa in 1986 and played a role in the investigation of the Therac-25 accidents and follow-up actions from 1986 to 1993. His talk will describe the accidents, focusing on their root causes, and will discuss their implications for software development from a system safety point of view.

Also, we plan to have a session during which participants will have an opportunity to briefly describe accidents and incidents that may of interest to the group. We are particularly interested in accidents and incidents that involve software functionality, and for which the presenter can offer some particular insight into the circumstances of the accident or incident. Details may be "sanitized" by the presenter as necessary to enable unguarded discussion of the accident or incident. Prospective participants interested in making a 5-10 minute presentation of this kind are invited to contact Jeff Joyce by email at jeffj@criticalsystemslabs.com no later than April 17. Priority may be given to earlier proposals. The registration fee this year is $75 if you register by April 15. Registration at the door will be $100. To get early registration, fill out the registration form and mail it to oconaill@mit.edu along with a check.

Click on the following headings for more information (to be provided later):