Topic of the course is: robust system design and its application in different areas of science.

• Have you ever wondered why some systems break, and some don't?
• Why some processes are fragile and others aren't?
• Why you see less Blue Screen of Deaths now than some years ago?
• Why we have fewer power outages than back in the days?
• How pharmaceuticals can be of better quality every year?

The long answer to these questions might be quite complicated, the short answer is simple - Robust System Design. Robust Systems are all around us, and to establish them we need to know what makes them robust - and maybe how to break them. This versatile subject is needed for designing systems of the future!

The course is focussed on identifying robustness issues across Engineering disciplines. The lectures will cover general properties of robust systems and how to ensure them, and will discuss robustness issues in systems from many different areas of our daily lives. At the end of the course we expect participants to be able to explain robustness criteria and analyse systems for robustness issues.

Syllabus and prematerials

• Syllabus
• Case Study - Learning to Embrace Failure
• Complexity and robustness

Lecture slides

• Slides (password protected)

Prior knowledge required: Basic understanding of the field you study. Prior knowledge about 'robust systems' is NOT required.

Relevant fields of study: Aerospace/Aeronautical Engineering, Agronomics/Forestry, Applied Sciences, Architectural Engineering, Architecture, Automotive Engineering, Biological/Biotechnical/Gene Engineering, Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry/Chemical Technology, Civil Engineering, Computational Sciences, Computer Engineering, Computer Science/Automatic Control/Informatics, Control Engineering/Systems engineering, Economics/Business Administration/Marketing, Electrical/Electromechanical Engineering, Electronic/Electrotechnical Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Food Engineering, Geology, Industrial Engineering, Industrial Management, Machine & Instrument engineering/Design, Materials Engineering, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics, Mining/Mineral Resources Engineering, Multimedia and Communication Design, Naval Architecture & Engineering, Optics/Optometry, Petroleum Engineering, Pharmacy, Physics/Physics Engineering, Power Engineering, Production Engineering/Management, Rural and Surveying Engineering, Telecommunications/Electronics, Territory Engineering, Textile Engineering & Technology, Transport Engineering