COURSE UNIT TITLE

: CATASTROPHIC FAILURES IN ENGINEERING

Description of Individual Course Units

Course Unit Code Course Unit Title Type Of Course D U L ECTS
ISG 5034 CATASTROPHIC FAILURES IN ENGINEERING ELECTIVE 3 0 0 8

Offered By

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences

Level of Course Unit

Second Cycle Programmes (Master's Degree)

Course Coordinator

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR SEZAI ŞEN

Offered to

Ph.D. in Occupational Health and Safety
Occupational Healty and Safety

Course Objective

Many occupational health and safety regulations were formed after a catastrophic engineering disaster with serious human causalities. Hence, learning from disasters became a common educational method in the world. However, recovering the related and necessary data after the disasters to apply as a precaution to other possible disasters should become the priority. In this course, several catastrophic engineering failures from several different engineering fields will be discussed including the cause, the result, ways to prevent it and further precautions to be taken.

Learning Outcomes of the Course Unit

1   Learning from failures
2   Getting aware of different fields of failures in engineering
3   Getting familiar with the concept of engineering failures
4   Determining the human factor in engineering applications
5   Getting aware of catastrophic results of such simple failures

Mode of Delivery

Face -to- Face

Prerequisites and Co-requisites

None

Recomended Optional Programme Components

None

Course Contents

Week Subject Description
1 What is a catastrophic failure
2 Classification of catastrophic failures in engineering
3 Bridge, dam and power plant failures
4 Transportation (plane, train, airship, ship etc.) failures
5 Structural and constructional failures
6 Presentation assignments
7 Mining disasters
8 Mining disasters
9 Chemical and nuclear disasters
10 Computer based failures
11 Aerospace failures
12 Presentation assignments
13 Learning from failures
14 Learning from failures

Recomended or Required Reading

Textbook(s): :
1. Catastrophic Engineering Failures (2013), IDC Technologies and EIT
2. Soma Coal Mine Disaster Information Report (2014), Aksoğan, P. et al., Greenpeace.
Supplementary Book(s):
1. http://engineeringfailures.org/ (2015)
2. Learning from Disasters (2009), Haiko Van Der Voort & Hans De Bruijn, IEEE Technology And Society Magazine, Fall, 29-36.

Planned Learning Activities and Teaching Methods

Lessons will be made in the form of oral presentations, visual expressions in the class.

Assessment Methods

SORTING NUMBER SHORT CODE LONG CODE FORMULA
1 ASG ASSIGNMENT
2 FIN FINAL EXAM
3 FCG FINAL COURSE GRADE ASG * 0.50 + FIN * 0.50
4 RST RESIT
5 FCGR FINAL COURSE GRADE (RESIT) ASG * 0.50 + RST * 0.50


Further Notes About Assessment Methods

None

Assessment Criteria

The lesson will be commenced with 2 oral student presentations and 1 final exam.

Language of Instruction

English

Course Policies and Rules

To be announced.

Contact Details for the Lecturer(s)

Asso.Prof.Dr.Sezai Şen

Office Hours

Monday-Tuesday: 03:00-05:00 pm.

Work Placement(s)

None

Workload Calculation

Activities Number Time (hours) Total Work Load (hours)
Lectures 12 3 36
Preparations before/after weekly lectures 14 6 84
Preparation for final exam 1 22 22
Preparing assignments 2 25 50
Final 1 4 4
Quiz etc. 2 2 4
TOTAL WORKLOAD (hours) 200

Contribution of Learning Outcomes to Programme Outcomes

PO/LOPO.1PO.2PO.3PO.4PO.5PO.6PO.7PO.8PO.9
LO.145444545
LO.2443
LO.3543554
LO.455
LO.5535555