The Australian System Safety Conference (ASSC) is organised by the Australian Safety Critical Systems Association (aSCSa), a Special Interest Group of the Australian Computer Society.
The theme for the 2023 conference is “Closing the Loop: Incorporating Humans into Systems”. With systems growing increasingly complex, we are exploring the role of Humans in modern systems, particularly the contribution of Humans to System Safety and Cybersecurity. As systems are starting to incorporate more artificial intelligence, machine learning, autonomous agents, etc., we are exploring the changing role of the human element: when should humans be in-the-loop, on-the-loop, or out-of-the-loop?
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, systems engineering, safety assurance, human factors, cybersecurity and social engineering, security assurance, reliance, automation, collaboration, teamwork, trust, and assurance standards.
The 2023 ASSC would like to examine and share the latest thinking on the state of the art and its fitness for purpose. We invite research papers and project experience to present and engage.
The conference invites original and unpublished works that advance the state-of-the-art in safety and security considerations for the development and operation of safety and security critical systems. We are particularly interested in cross-industry and cross-pollenisation, and looking for papers in:
Delegates have the option of submitting two types of papers:
Both types of papers are published on the conference website, and if sufficient papers are submitted, published in the Journal of Safety and Reliability Society.
The purpose of this award is to encourage research in the science of software/system engineering or the application of that science for safety and/or mission critical software-intensive systems.
The award is an individual award consisting of $1000 (Australian), with a certificate, and up to $1000 for travel. For papers with multiple authors, the award will be given to the lead author.
This year’s award was presented to Quantifying human reliability in safety analysis – How useful is it? by Andy Gabler and Keryn Pauley.
Conference registration fees (except as noted) includes attendance at all technical sessions on Wednesday and Thursday, special Thursday evening social event, and the conference proceedings.
All fees as listed above are in Australian Dollars and GST inclusive. For questions about registration, contact George Nikandros at secretary@ascsa.org.au.
| Registration | |
|---|---|
| Presenter’s Rate | FREE |
| aSCSa, ACS Member | $1250.00 |
| All Others | $1375.00 |
Centre for Healthcare Resilience & Implementation Science (CHRIS), Macquarie University
Associate Professor Robyn Clay-Williams is an internationally regarded health services researcher and a leading exponent of human factors and resilient systems. Her expertise is in creating health services and systems that can function effectively in the presence of complexity and uncertainty. Her research bridges the gap between theory and practice, by developing products and processes that are usable and ready for implementation. Robyn has published extensively, with over 240 peer-reviewed academic outputs. At the Australian Institute of Health and Innovation, Macquarie University, Robyn leads a research program in developing new models of care to improve hospital Emergency Department performance, and patient experience and outcomes.
UniSA SmartSat Professorial Chair in Cyber Security
Professor Jill Slay is currently the University of South Australia SmartSat Professorial Chair in Cybersecurity and researches in the SmartSat Australian Co-operative Research Centre (CRC). Her current work focuses on the context of satellite cybersecurity and resilience. She has been an Affiliate Faculty member with Professor Corey Schou at Idaho State University for nearly twenty years. She has published more than 140 outputs in information assurance, critical infrastructure protection, security and forensic computing. She has completed the supervision of 20 PhDs and many Masters and Honours theses and has been awarded over AUD 5 million in research income.has established an international research reputation in cyber security (particularly Digital Forensics, Cyber Intelligence and Cyberwarfare) and has worked in collaboration with the Australian Federal and State governments and with many industry partners.
Jill is a Board Member of ISC2 . She is a Member of the Defence Employment Partnering Network Advisory Committee and was a Director of the Oceania Cyber Security Centre, the Australian Victorian Government’s Cyber Research Centre and has many years of experience of governance through University Boards and Committees and government collaboration.
Jill was in 2017-2019 Director of Cyber Resilience Initiatives for the Australian Computer Society (ACS) and led ACS work on the development of Professional Standards in Cyber Security with ISC2 and ISACA. Jill works closely with the Australian Defence industry and several smaller cyber security start-ups in cyber risk and resilience research, development and training.
Jill was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to the information technology industry through contributions in the areas of forensic computer science, security, protection of infrastructure and cyber-terrorism. She a Fellow of ISC2 awarded for her service to the information security industry.
School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences, Appleton Institute, CQUniversity
Professor Anjum Naweed is an applied researcher and Certified Professional Ergonomist. He is internationally regarded for his applied and theoretical advancements in transport human factors. Anjum’s research interests include complex decision-making and knowledge representation in skilled work, job design, creative and cultural applications of simulation, safety science, and systems thinking. His expertise is in understanding the relationship between people, technologies, tools, environments, and systems, and practically translating this across the complex domains.
Anjum has co-edited books, written over 150 peer reviewed articles and secured over $6 million in research funding. At the Appleton Institute—CQUniversity Adelaide, Anjum leads the Human Factors and Operational Readiness research cluster. He currently serves as a Scientific Editor for Applied Ergonomics, an international journal aimed at all those interested in applying ergonomics and human factors in the design, planning and management of technical and social systems. Anjum has been a Scientific Convenor for the Australasian Simulation Congress on five consecutive occasions, and for the Annual Conference of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society of Australia twice.
Anjum’s research has received numerous accolades. In 2012, he was awarded the Body of Knowledge prize from Simulation Australasia and the John Lane Award from the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society of Australia (HFESA). He has twice been a recipient of Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Researcher of the Year (2013; 2018), recognising his excellence in research activity, publication, and engagement. In 2022, he received the Simulation Achievement Award for clear and unambiguous, outstanding contributions to science, technology, and education, and Simulation Australia’s Lifetime Membership Award.
Executive Director, Defence Trailblazer
Dr Sanjay Mazumdar is a proven chief executive and board director who has ~30 years of experience in the defence, national security and ICT sectors. Sanjay is the Executive Director of the Defence Trailblazer, a $240 million enterprise powered by the University of Adelaide and UNSW, with funding from the Australian Government through the Trailblazer Universities Program, as well as university and industry partners.
Sanjay has previously held the following roles:
Chief Technology Officer, Trusted Autonomous Systems
Simon is Chief Technology Officer at TAS. Graduating from Monash University with a PhD in 1998, he completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at CSIRO before joining DSTG, where he developed techniques for military operations experimentation, and applied systems methods to surveillance and response, space operations and autonomous aerial systems. He was previously DSTG Group Leader for the Joint Systems Analysis and Aerial Autonomous Systems Groups, and Associate Director of the Defence Science Institute. He is Australia’s National Lead on The Technical Cooperation Program Technical Panel “UAS Integration into the Battlespace”, and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Chief Engineer, Engineers Australia
Jane MacMaster has worked as an aerospace, mechanical and systems design engineer in Australia and internationally, focusing primarily on supersonic flight vehicle design, operations research and rapid prototyping in the Defence and cyber security sectors.
She has previously worked as a senior advisor within the strategy unit of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Prior to becoming Chief Engineer at Engineers Australia, she developed a generalised approach for complex problem solving which she taught across all faculties at universities, and to staff from Commonwealth, and State and Territory government departments.
She is a director on the Board of the Australian Council of Professions.
| Start | End | Session | Title |
| 08:45 | 08:55 | Welcome | |
| 08:55 | 09:55 | (Keynote) Professor Anjum Naweed | Navigating Complexity: The Changing Dynamics of Humans in Rail Systems |
| 09:55 | 10:30 | Teddy Zvidza (Nova Systems) | Ensuring Safety in Human Out of the Loop (HOTL) Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) (Paper and Presentation) |
| 10:30 | 10:50 | Break | |
| 10:50 | 11:50 | (Keynote) Dr Simon Ng | Trusted Autonomous Systems |
| 11:50 | 13:00 | Lunch | |
| 13:00 | 14:00 | (Keynote) Jane MacMaster | The rapidly changing nature of critical systems and the rise of complexity, systems, data and AI - opportunities, challenges and the importance of people |
| 14:00 | 14:35 | Dr Kelvin Ross | Validation Driven Machine Learning (VDML): A Systematic Approach to ML Model Training and Validation |
| 14:35 | 14:55 | Break | |
| 14:55 | 15:30 | Martin Hughes (Hitachi Rail) | Human factors in the context of EN50128 (Paper and Presentation) |
| 15:30 | 16:05 | Best Paper Award Andy Gabler & Keryn Pauley (Acmena) |
Quantifying human reliability in safety analysis – How useful is it? (Paper and Presentation) |
| 16:05 | 16:40 | Ray Feodoroff | Human Orientedness of System Safety (Paper and Presentation) |
| Start | End | Session | Title |
| 08:45 | 08:50 | Welcome | |
| 08:50 | 09:00 | (Sponsor) Dedicated Systems | |
| 09:00 | 10:00 | (Keynote) Professor Jill Slay | Space Systems Cyber Security |
| 10:00 | 10:35 | Ben Luther (Nova Systems) | Scoping safety domains |
| 10:35 | 11:00 | Break | |
| 11:00 | 12:00 | (Keynote) Dr Sanjay Mazumdar | Strengthening Australia’s Defence Capabilities Through Defence Trailblazer |
| 12:00 | 13:00 | Lunch | |
| 13:00 | 14:00 | (Keynote) Associate Professor Robyn Clay-Williams | New technology and healthcare: is it safe? Can a human factors approach help to make it safer? |
| 14:00 | 14:10 | (Sponsor) KJR | Snapshots of Software Quality Engineering since 1997 |
| 14:10 | 14:45 | Dr. Clive Boughton (Software Improvements), David McIver & John Salerno (Dedicated Systems) |
The Importance of Human Factors and Security in Electronic Voting |
| 14:45 | 14:55 | (Sponsor) RGB Assurance | |
| 14:55 | 15:00 | Closing |
This years conference will be held at the Crowne Plaza at 27 Frome St, Adelaide SA.
Conference dinner is planned for Wednesday evening, 6pm.
