Please note that tea and coffee will be served from 17.30hrs. The lecture itself commences at 18.30hrs and shall be followed by a drinks reception.
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Threats to our infrastructure seem to be mounting every day. Whether they are from climate change, terrorism, or cyber security modern infrastructure can no longer be assumed to be robust, and resilience comes to the fore. But national infrastructure is now a heavily interlaced system of systems. How should resilience be delivered in the modern world?
Professor David Oxenham Chief Systems Engineer at DSTL offers a systems engineer’s personal perspective.
Biography
David Oxenham is Chief Systems Engineer and a Senior Fellow of the MOD’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL)). where he applies a systems approach to complex problems in defence and security bringing together analysis, science, technology, military concepts and industrial capabilities. He co-chairs a cross-Government professional leadership group and community of practice in Systems Engineering.
David joined the Ministry of Defence (MOD) at the UK’s Royal Aerospace Establishment to work on aircraft and weapons navigation systems, moving on to the “Centre for Defence Analysis” in 1993. There, he was responsible for leading a large part of MOD’s air operational research study programme and played a significant advising role in the decisions for many of the UK’s largest aircraft and weapon system acquisitions.
After a year at the Royal College of Defence Studies he returned to MOD’s newly formed Defence Science and Technology Laboratory to take up a senior management role for Maritime and Strategic Systems. He was appointed as a Dstl Senior Fellow in 2009.
David sits on Advisory Boards for Bristol, Loughborough and Cranfield Universities. He was previously a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor for Integrated Systems Design at Imperial College.
Abstract
Threats to national infrastructure seem to be mounting every day. Whether they are from climate change, terrorism, or cyber security modern infrastructure post attack resilience is becoming of increasing importance. Our society and economy increasingly depend on the smooth and efficient functioning of heavily interlaced, and highly complex, systems of systems, enterprises and infrastructure. It is not safe to assume that we are as resilient as we wish to be, or that the infrastructure we are designing will be resilient against future challenges. How best to design and operate systems and infrastructure so that both are resilient and futureproof is a test of engineering… and of engineers.
Professor David Oxenham Chief Systems Engineer at MOD’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory Portland Down offers a systems engineer’s personal perspective and insight into current research.