Events and Activities

Event Title: Research and development in multidisciplinary large-scale projects – a case study from the passenger cruise ship sector

Date: 02 November 2021, 19:30 – 20:15h CEST

Location: TCD’s Blackboard Platform

Student cohort: Year 2 students of the Centre for Innovative Human Systems’ Online Diploma and M.Sc. in Managing Risk and System Change ‘Managing Risk & System Change’.

No. of students attended: 10

Background to Course:

The Postgraduate Diploma and M.Sc. courses (Postgraduate Diploma (1/2 years part time, 60 ECTS) / M.Sc. (2/3 years part-time, 90 ECTS) are aimed at safety critical industries across the globe and focuses on people already in work, who have responsibility for managing: risk; change; safety; quality; planning; system design. It brings the next generation of safety, risk and change management to safety practitioners, in their work, embedded in their everyday practice with a systemic, proactive and performance focus. The overall objective of these online courses is to provide a rigorous but practical focus on risk, change and system design in operations, manufacturing and services, with an innovative integrated approach to the role of people in such systems. It provides a core framework that has been tested in collaborative industrial research and practice for managing and developing people, the design and integration of new technologies, the management of risk and the implementation of change. World-class international teams who have collaborated through industrial research have been mobilised to provide the highest calibre research led teaching, supervision and professional expertise. Students, through the courses, also become part of a global community of practice, a community of professional learners, across a range of safety critical sectors, where they will benefit not only from the academic and industrial experts delivering the course but also from the extended network of fellow students.

Background to presentation:

TCD’s SafePASS team (Dr. Paul Liston (PI), Alison Kay, & Emma Delemere) presented a session titled “Research and development in multidisciplinary large-scale projects – a case study from the passenger cruise ship sector” to 10 students on TCD’s online Diploma and M.Sc. in Managing Risk and System Change ‘Managing Risk & System Change’.

Attendees were given a presentation on evacuating large cruise ships and a broad overview of the SafePASS solutions and innovations. Following this there were a series of discussions on the challenges of performing multidisciplinary research on large-scale projects using SafePASS as an example. Following these discussions students were presented on lessons learned by the SafePASS TCD researchers in over 20 years’ experience of working in technology development and system change projects. Before concluding the presentation the students were guided through the SafePASS Risk Management tools for conducting research. This highlighted the use of a risk registry throughout the research lifecycle (from design, to implementation, and through to evaluation). Furthermore the four steps of the SafePASS methodology for managing research risk was outlined and discussed:

(1) Identification: Identify the potential risks, (2) Quantification: Assessment of the probability of events and examination of consequences associated with their occurrence, (3) Response: Methods to reduce or control the risk, and (4) Control and Report: Documentation of risks and lessons learnt.

The students who attended the session were interested to learn from the experiences of the SafePASS researchers as they set about doing action research projects in their own organisations as part of their Diploma/M.Sc. dissertation, and feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Prior to concluding the session the students were invited to visit the SafePASS website and join the Community of Practice.

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