A new centre of excellence in risk, integrity and safety engineering at Memorial University
A new interdisciplinary centre of excellence has been established in Memorial University’s Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science.
The Centre for Risk, Integrity and Safety Engineering (CRISE) will lead interdisciplinary research on safety, integrity and sustainability of industrial processes and systems, with a particular focus on harsh environment operations.
The centre will engage highly qualified experts and bring together faculty and researchers from various departments and faculties and/or schools while fostering collaboration among faculty, researchers, industry partners, and other experts, nationally and internationally.
“The new centre will help to develop new knowledge and provide education and training for safe and “green” design, operation and maintenance of process facilities,” said Dr. Faisal Khan, the centre’s founding director and head of the Department of Process Engineering.
The main goals of the centre are to develop new knowledge to solve complex problems related to fault detection and management, process, safety and risk management; develop new technology to improve safety, integrity and sustainability of process operations; train highly qualified personnel for academic and industry careers; and to transfer new knowledge through technical publications, workshops, symposiums and training sessions.
“As risk management techniques grow increasingly complex, and energy, mining, and transportation companies continue to seek new ways to manage risk, it has become even more imperative to have a better grasp on the nature of losses that have historically occurred,” said Dr. Khan. “At CRISE, we will help the industry better understand, quantify and manage risk to survive and thrive in their processes and operations. The research in CRISE covers a wide range of theoretical and applied research activities mainly related to process safety and asset integrity management.”
CRISE, which is an expansion of the Safety and Risk Engineering Group (SREG), which Dr. Khan founded in 2002, has more than 40 members, which include professors, research engineers and graduate students.
Researchers in the centre are currently focused on safety and integrity challenges faced by offshore oil and mining industries operating in harsh environments, the Arctic and remote areas.
“Congratulations to Dr. Faisal Khan and his team of collaborators for launching this new centre of excellence,” said Dr. Greg Naterer, dean, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science. “Initiatives like this foster multi-disciplinary collaboration among faculty, researchers, industry partners and other experts to enrich the learning environment for our graduate students.”