SWEN 326Safety-Critical Systems
This course addresses the concepts, techniques and tools required for developing computer systems that are applicable where safety and reliability is paramount. Topics include: the concepts and principles underlying safety-critical systems & standards (e.g. DO178C and IEC61508); techniques for design validation (e.g. model checking); and implementation techniques for ensuring software correctness (e.g. coding guidelines, testing, static analysis, etc). Practical work will involve the design, implementation, and analysis of simple safety critical applications (e.g. for industrial, embedded and healthcare systems).
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Course details
- Dates
- 24 Feb 2025 to 22 Jun 2025
- Starts
- Trimester 1
- Fees
- NZ$1,197.60 for
- International fees
- NZ$5,477.70
- Lecture start times
- Monday 3.10pm
- Wednesday 3.10pm
- Thursday 3.10pm
- Campus
- Kelburn
- Estimated workload
- Approximately 150 hours or 9.4 hours per week for 16 weeks
- Points
- 15
Entry restrictions
Taught by
School of Engineering and Computer Science—Faculty of Engineering
About this course
This course has a mix of engineering practices, including requirements gathering, system and software design, implementation and testing.
The course will teaching the necessary programming skills (assuming a base knowledge of programming from 200-level) in the labs in the first six weeks of the course, following by a group practical project in the second six weeks of the course.
Course learning objectives
Students who pass this course should be able to:
Describe the key principles of safety critical systems and the implications of these for software design and implementation.
Select and apply appropriate standards and processes to develop safety critical systems, for example IEC 61508 and DO-178C.
Analyse potential risks, hazards, threats, and failure modes in the designs of safety critical systems.
Design and construct software following safety critical standards, processes, and design techniques.
Evaluate system designs and software against safety critical standards.
How this course is taught
This course is designed for in-person study, and students are strongly recommended to attend lectures and labs on campus.
This course requires attendance for some of its activities, for which there are no online alternatives. This specifically includes tests.
Assessment
- Test 1 Mark: 54%
- Group Project Mark: 30%
- Test 2 Mark: 16%
Assessment dates and extensions
Once you've signed up to this course, you can use to see due dates for assessments and information about extensions.
Mandatory requirements
There are no mandatory requirements for this course.
Group work
Group Work The project will be undertaken as a group with 15% based on a group-assessed mark and 15% based on an individually-assessed mark.
Lecture times and rooms
What you’ll need to get
You do not need to get any texts or equipment for this course.
Who to contact
Selected offering
SWEN 326
24 Feb–22 Jun 2025
Trimester 1 · CRN 30042