Mark Nicholson's Consultancy Page

Background

Most of the research projects I have undertaken over the last 15 years have been projects involving collaboration with industrial partners and address the requirements of those partners. So I have a range of experience of collaborating with companies in the Aerospace, military and automotive sectors.

I have also undertaken a range of consultancy activities related to development of safety critical systems, system safety engineering and hard real-time systems. In 2007 for instance I worked with a company selling a product developed for the civil market into a military environment. I hope to extend this portfolio in the future.

Interests / skills

I have extensive research and consultancy activities in the field of Hard-real Time and Safety Critical Systems. Research interests include:

·         Configuration and reconfiguration on failure of safety critical systems including avionics

·         Data rich environments and the impact on safety assessment

·         Quantitative versus qualitative safety analysis

·         Safety process issues relating to Integrated Modular Avionics

·         Safety Management Systems

·         Tool qualification for Safety-critical Systems.

·         Design contracts and safety case contracts for safety critical systems

·         Common cause analysis techniques

Skills include:

·         Safety Management Systems

·         Risk analysis

·         Hazard analysis (SHARD and HAZOP)

·         System Safety analysis (Fault Tree Analysis, Failure Modes and Effects Analysis)

·         Schedulability analysis

·         Allocation of hard-real time systems

·         Development of GSN safety case arguments

·         Systems safety processes (in particular for civil aerospace via ARP 4754)

·        Consideration of safety of Unmanned Systems

 

If you would like to talk to me about consultancy please email me at mark.nicholson@cs.york.ac.uk. I am also an associate consultant for Origin Consulting.

Other relevant information

External tailored CPD courses:

·        I have taught on over 100 tailored CPD course for industry in the U.K., U.S., Australia, Saudi Arabia. Many of these courses were commissioned to bring staff up to speed relating to specific projects or changes.

·        In 2007 I lectured and demonstrated on 10 such courses for industry including for Airbus, BAE SYSTEMS, and Lockheed Martin (Railway). The two most important courses were for the Royal Saudi Airforce (I acted as course leader for this trip to Saudi Arabia) and a set of courses to inspectors on the introduction of Safety Management Systems for the CAA.

·        I have also lectured, demonstrated and set the assessment on one external academic course for the Australian National University Canberra. This was a Masters level module.

Publications

·        CSE International Ltd "Preliminary Assessment of Linux for Safety-Related Systems" HSE Research Report 011, 2002 

·        CAA “Assessment of an Operating System”, Origin Consulting 2003 

·        P. Conmy, M. Nicholson, Y. Purwantoro, J.A.  Mcdermid J.A.  "Safety Analysis and Certification of Open Distributed Systems", ICCS 2002 

·        J.A. McDermid and M. Nicholson "Extending PSSA for Complex Systems", ISSC Ottawa, August 2003 

·        P. Conmy, M. Nicholson "Identifying Safety Dependencies in Modular Computer Systems", ISSC Ottawa, August 2003 

·        R. Pierce, M. Nicholson, A. Faulkner "Assessing Operating Systems for Safety Related Applications", ISSC Ottawa August 2003 

·        P.Conmy, M. Nicholson, J. McDermid, "Safety Assurance Contracts for Integrated Modular Avionics", 8th Australian Workshop on Safety Critical Systems and Software, Canberra, CRPIT Vol 33, pp 69-78, October 2003.

·        G. Jolliffe and M. Nicholson "Exploring the Possibilities Towards a Preliminary Saftey Case for IMA Blueprints", System Safety Symposium, Southampton, February, Springer-verlag, 2005

·        M. Nicholson, "Health Monitoring for Reconfigurable Integrated Control Systems" System Safety Symposium, Southampton, Springer-verlag, February 2005

·        G. Jolliffe and M. Nicholson "Exploring the Possibilities Towards a Preliminary Saftey Case for IMA Blueprints", Proceedings Of The 23rd International System Safety Conference, San Diego U.S.A., August 22-26 2005

·        Zoë Stephenson, Mark Nicholson, John McDermid "Product-Line Technology Recommendations for Integrated Modular Systems", Proceedings Of The 23rd International System Safety Conference, San Diego U.S.A., August 22-26 2005

·        Zoë Stephenson, Mark Nicholson, John McDermid "Flexibility and Manageability of IMS Projects", Proceedings Of The 24th International System Safety Conference, U.S.A., August 2006

·        Andrew Evans and Mark Nicholson, “Safety Assessment and Certification for UAS”, 22nd International UAV Systems Conference, 16 – 18 April 2007

 

About this page

Created 23-06-03. Last updated 21/03/08.