Drawing upon other relevant work in the field of risk education, a proposed set of risk education topic areas was developed for undergraduate engineering students. These were grounded in current professional requirements of the engineering institutions, legislation, and best practice described in relevant HSE publications and current academic courses. From this, learning outcomes (aimed at program level) that could be embedded in an undergraduate engineering course were developed. A differentiation was made in the learning outcomes between the awareness and understanding of risk concepts, and the application of this knowledge.
Risk topics have been successfully embedded in some year 1 core engineering modules at the University of Liverpool, through formal lectures, a virtual laboratory exercise and keynote lectures on professional practice. The lectures and lab are complementary with the lab promoting experiential role-play learning. The keynote lectures on professional practice will cover leadership, ethics, inherent safety, human factors and the role of standards. The plan is to introduce the application of risk assessment techniques into design projects, group design projects and final year projects in years 2, 3 and 4.

While retaining the engineering science theme, it was possible to link several of the key risk concepts to stress analysis through case studies of engineering disasters in one of the engineering mechanics modules. Safety issues are embedded in the lecture material and integrated with the theory rather than added on as a separate topic. New PowerPoint slides have been produced to enhance the presentation and enable the material to be reviewed on the University’s virtual interactive teaching and learning (VITAL) system.

A new virtual laboratory exercise has been designed based on the Port Ramsgate accident investigation. In this lab, students take on the role of the accident investigation team gathering evidence and data eventually to be used in the criminal prosecution of those parties responsible for the accident. All year 1 students take the lab exercise in the 1st semester. The lab is carried out in small tutor groups of around 6 to 10 students.

A worksheet has been prepared for each stage to guide the students through the tasks and lead them to record the important information. All the information they require is contained within a file of data. Students can also refer to the scale model and search for clues. The worksheet also serves as their technical note, on which they will be assessed, to be completed during the lab session (3 hours) and handed to the demonstrator at the end of the session before they leave.

A number of experts have been approached to give keynote lectures on the following topics:

• Professional responsibilities
• Human factors
• Inherent safety
• Codes and standards

These lectures have been packaged together and will be delivered to year 1 students taking the design module in the 2nd semester under the overall heading of professional practice.
With the agreement of the experts, the keynote lectures will be recorded together with audience interaction to enable them to be replayed in future years. This may then be used to produce a video package that can be used by other universities.

Desired learning outcomes in risk concepts
On successful completion of the program, students should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• The concepts of hazard, safety and risk as part of everyday life
• The engineer’s professional responsibilities for safety and managing risk (moral and legal obligations, and financial and human factors relating to safety)
• The principles of hazard identification and risk assessment relevant to the discipline
• The methods of hazard identification and risk assessment (both qualitative and quantitative) relevant to the discipline and how to apply them in familiar situations
• The techniques for reducing and controlling risk and how to apply them in familiar situations
• Potential exposure to hazards and risk in the workplace, and
• Underlying causes of accidents and failures (through case studies).

On successful completion of the program, students should be able to demonstrate ability in applying knowledge of the above topics as follows:

• Can design simple engineering systems for safety accounting for uncertainties
• Can perform a risk assessment using appropriate methods, avoiding some of the common pitfalls, and implement, where necessary, effective risk reduction measures
• Can learn from documented failures and accidents the underlying hazard, safety and risk issues and relate this knowledge to their future professional responsibilities, and
• Can identify and control safety hazards to themselves and others in the course of work activities.

Lead organization:
Engineering Department, The University of Liverpool; Health and Safety Laboratory, agency of The Health and Safety Executive (HSE)

Contact:
GRAHAM SCHLEYER, RUI FANG DUAN
Engineering Department
The University of Liverpool
Liverpool
L69 3GH
UK

JULIAN WILLIAMSON, NICOLA STACEY
Health and Safety Laboratory
Harpur Hill
Buxton
SK17 9JN
UK

Take a look at the syllabus (PDF file)

Internet:www.hse.gov.uk/research
(Schleyer GK, Duan RF, Stacey N and Williamson J, 2006, ‘Risk education in engineering - development of year one materials’, HSL internal report)