Fire Safety Engineering Application

In this capstone unit, students will have the opportunity to integrate technical knowledge and skills from previous units and apply them in realistic work-related settings. The first part of this unit provides students with an understanding on the details of various approaches used for the analysis, design and management of fire safety systems in buildings, with particular emphasis placed on an absolute quantitative approach. This approach uses a probabilistic risk assessment methodology based on historical data to assess the expected risk to life (ERL), safety and the expected costs (and their benefits) to develop a performance based building design. The students will be introduced to fire investigation processes and project management techniques.

In the second part of the unit Students will work in project teams to design and develop a Fire Safety System for a building project in the student’s own workplace or that of a fellow student. In this project students will be required to employ quantitative and qualitative assessment techniques, performance based building designs, and demonstrate compliance with BCA standards. They will need to factor in fire insurance implications and general environmental, social and economic impacts. This approach of Work Integrated Learning (WIL) is aimed at enabling students undertake a real world project which affords them avenues to engage directly with industry, while simultaneously advancing both their technical and generic skills.