"Systems engineering is going to be absolutely critical....."

10 year celebration

"Systems engineering is going to be absolutely critical....."

Over the last 10 years the Centre for Systems Engineering and Innovation’s (CSEI) vision has been to bring systems engineering and innovation to civil infrastructure. Our key research themes around complexity and resilience, systems integration, data-driven systems engineering, transforming construction, infrastructure life-cycles and towards net-zero pollution have had significant outcomes and impacts on research, policy and industry practice.

Minister Nadhim Zahawi, keynote at the our 10 year celebration event believes over the next 10 years “the importance of systems engineering, and the benefits of systems approaches, are going to be critical”.

He continued “The Centre is I think an example of what Imperial College does best. A combination of deep understanding, of relevant technology, but a wider appreciation of its role and function within society and how it can best be used”.

Fellow keynote, Ray O’Rourke (Laing O’Rourke) and Centre partner believes the future rests with organisations who invest in the technology “It's not optional we just have to keep investing with it”.

He continues “Working with Imperial - we could actually engage and get to understand”

The full video of our event can be found here.

To continue on our 10 year celebration please do register for one of our upcoming 2020 small call winners seminars, full details below.

A Framework for Assessing Public Occupancy Risk in Buildings
Dr Georgia Bateman
30 September 2020. 16:00 - 17:00

The safety of members of the public occupying large, complex buildings such as airport terminal buildings, sports stadiums, train stations and office buildings is of paramount importance. Designated as Critical National Infrastructure, occupants within these types of buildings are often subject to increased external threats from terrorism events, but internal events and day-to-day hazards are also present in these systems. Often safety considerations related to the operational phase of a building lifecycle are neglected, and current systemic hazard identification methods are unable to incorporate a sufficient level of detail on hazards and risks to members of the public that is necessary, as they do not incorporate information on typical processes of occupants.

This research talk will introduce a new framework that has been developed based on qualitative research methods and systems engineering concepts that can be utilised to investigate and aid with risk assessments for members of the public in large, complex buildings. The framework is applicable to both particular classes of buildings, and to individual examples.

The framework developed consists of six steps including initial hazard identification and stakeholder mapping processes. Qualitative research methods – stakeholder interviews – form an integral component of the developed framework, as do model-based systems engineering methods. The talk will also describe how the framework was applied to a case study example – TfL’s Palestra office building, to aid with hazard and risk identification in relation to threats arising from Covid-19.

Building retrofit product innovation: Identifying trends using patent and policy data
Dr Kate Simpson
7 October 2020. 16:00 - 17:00

This collaboration aims to better understand trends in eco-innovation in building retrofit technologies and the drivers for those trends. The insight is derived from the European Patent Office database and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) database.