Following a careful evaluation by international panels, the RAMS Group was found to be one of seven excellent research groups at the Faculty of Engineering Science and Technology. A brochure called "Research Excellence" was published and the following is the entry of this brochure for the RAMS Group.
Saving lives, protecting the environment and avoiding unwanted stops
RAMS is an acronym for Reliability, Availability, Maintenance, and Safety. The RAMS group develops new knowledge to help society and companies avoid accidents and failures, reduce losses and optimize production.
Research challenges
Examples of research challenges being addressed by the RAMS group are:
- We often say that "this was an accident waiting to happen" after large accidents, so why can we not learn more from accident investigations to be able to predict and avoid the next one?
- Safety relies on more and more complex systems with embedded software. How can we design to make them function when we need them, and not give false alarms or cause other negative effects?
- The competition and the demand for speed increase every day. How can we push the boundaries and still operate safely and reliably?
- Our society is increasingly relying on complex infrastructures. How can we design these systems to be reliable and less vulnerable?
Applications
The methods and knowledge are generic, but the main applications are complex systems where consequences of failures are large, in terms of loss of life, large costs or large disruptions to society. Important application areas are the oil and gas industry, transport and critical infrastructure.
Cooperation
The RAMS group cooperates closely with other research groups at NTNU and SINTEF through the ROSS Gemini Center. ROSS has 70--80 researchers and is one of the largest research groups in this field in the world.
We have an international network and cooperate with universities in different parts of the world. Textbooks prepared by RAMS group staff are being used in many universities. The group cooperates with SINTEF and with industry on projects funded by the EU or the Norwegian Research Council, and also through, e.g., the IO Centre.