Risk Analysis (M375/M394C/CAM394C), Fall 01

1. Do Problems 1-A and 1-B to discuss in class Friday

2. Read the article "Risk, Science and Democracy," by William D. Ruckelshaus. This article is intended to give you some history and other background of the role of risk analysis. We will spend a few minutes in class discussing the article on Friday. (This article is taken from the book Readings in Risk, which is on reserve in the PMA library. If you are interested in further reading about risk analysis, this book is one good source. Another is the journal Issues in Science and Technology, in which the article originally appeared. This journal is published by the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and UT Dallas. IT is carried by the UT libraries and is available in the PCL library. Some articles are also available online through UTNetCAT.)

Note: I will not usually assign reading of this sort.

3. Graduate students only: Read the description of the project online at http://www.ma.utexas.edu/users/mks/RA/project.html. I will take a few minutes in class Friday to answer any questions and give students a chance to let other students know what project topics they are interested in.

Recommended:

4. Read pp. 1-24

5. Think about the attached questions to accompany the Ruckelshaus article.

6. Read the Society for Risk Analysis Principles for Risk Analysis and think about how they relate to the Ruckelshaus article.

General Recommendation: When you read a problem that is solved in the text, first read the problem statement carefully, then spend a few minutes thinking about the problem (What techniques would you use? Do you need techniques beyond those that have already been discussed? What additional information do you need?) before reading the solution in the text.