Dr John May
B.Sc., Ph.D.(Bristol)
Current positions
Reader in Safety Systems
Department of Civil Engineering
Contact
Media contact
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Research interests
John May's research group the Safety Systems Research Centre, is a part of the South West Nuclear Research and Teaching Hub, in which he is an operational board member, and lead for research theme 'Reliability, resilience and security'. The SSRC studies risk in a new breed of highly complex systems built by man. Existing scientific and engineering techniques have been unable to describe or control these phenomena.
For example, it was previously thought to be the case that non-trivial software based systems were untestable, in the sense that testing could not provide meaningful quantitative assurance of software reliability. We have demonstrated that this not the case for a significant class of software, and have applied new statistical reliability testing techniques to critical nuclear systems, including reactor protection systems and smart devices. The latest research, conducted with UK nuclear licensees and ONR (regulator), in the CINIF programme, is enhancing the power of these techniques to demonstrate higher reliabilities and apply to a wider class of systems.
Socio-technical systems also exhibit complex systematic failure behaviour, the result of which can be seen in repeated large industry accidents (Fukushima, Boeing, Macondo, Chernobyl, Bunsfield, Hatfield, Piper Alpha, etc.) SSRC is developing new ideas for the control of dangerous accident precursors in large organisations.
Last but certainly not least, the research group is developing a new method to evaluate risk, based on the 'J-value'. This can be used to prioritise mitigation activities and understand where best to allocate the costs of protecting against disasters.
Positions
University of Bristol positions
Reader in Safety Systems
Department of Civil Engineering
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
Improving C&I Design for Testability (R&D on Reactor Design – Safety)
Principal Investigator
Description
As software systems become more complex and more difficult to assure, attention is becoming focused on how we can gain confidence in these critical systems. There are many diverse techniques…Managing organisational unit
Dates
01/05/2019 to 25/10/2020
Reliability Limits of Programmable Protection Systems (R&D on Reactor Design – Safety)
Principal Investigator
Description
To date... Scientific demonstration of system reliability requires further research, since the traditional methods based on random failure assumptions do not apply for software. Protection systems are amongst the most…Managing organisational unit
Dates
01/05/2019 to 25/10/2020
ICON: Intelligent control (for nuclear efficient applications)
Role
Co-Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Department of Mechanical EngineeringDates
01/11/2017 to 30/04/2018
RE-USE OF RELIABLE SOFTWARE COMPONENTS
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Department of Civil EngineeringDates
01/01/2007 to 01/07/2009
Thesis supervisions
Publications
Recent publications
20/11/2017Coping after a big nuclear accident
Process Safety and Environmental Protection
Understanding organisational and cultural precursors to events
Proceedings of the ICE - Forensic Engineering
Theoretical Feasibility of Statistical Assurance of Programmable Systems Based on Simulation Tests
Proceedings - 2017 IEEE International Conference on Software Quality, Reliability and Security Companion, QRS-C 2017
A Diversity Model Based on Failure Distribution and its Application in Safety Cases
IEEE Transactions on Reliability