Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ginosko!uunet!motcid!murphyn
From: murphyn@cell.mot.COM (Neal P. Murphy)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Information on current state of software safety desired
Message-ID: <195@cherry5.UUCP>
Date: 3 Oct 89 14:31:12 GMT
References: <1321@cs.rit.edu>
Reply-To: murphyn@cherry5.UUCP (Neal P. Murphy)
Organization: Motorola Inc. - cellular Infrastructure Div., Arlington Heights, IL 60004
Lines: 26


>                I am currently starting graduate research into the  area  of
>           software  safety.  This research is intended to be initially very
>           broad until I can narrow my focus.  I am specifically  interested
>           in, but not limited to, the following areas:
> ...
>           (3)  What, if anything, is motivating  the  current  interest  in
>                safety  ?  Has  there  been any single event that might have
>                sparked interest in the field recently ?

One thing that motivated my interest in software safety was the failure of a
radiation therapy (cancer treatment) LINAC built by some North American
company. While I think that the failure resulted from a system design flaw,
the problem is directly related to software safety, since the software was
performing most of the control of the system and should have had access to
sensors that would have enabled the system to detect the massive overdose
of radiation and shut it off in time. The software developers should have
been aware of the lethal radiation levels that could be generated and should
have insisted on a fail-safe shutoff, either as part of the system or parallel
to it.

Ah, well, as long as everyone involved learned from their mistakes. We're only
human. We can only try to do our best. Mostly we succeed, sometimes we don't.
"The operation was a success, but we lost the patient."

NPN