Be sure to look at the Canvas Module for this week for various hand-in mechanisms!

There are TWO DIFFERENT homework hand-ins on Canvas for this assignment. One for the slide, and a different hand-in using that same slide as a basis for a video. Please submit BOTH homeworks (one slide, and the video you've recorded using that slide).

Hints:

Failure Stories Slide

• The learning objective is to gain some understanding of how computer failures affect real people in the real world.
• You will be assigned a "group" on Canvas for this assignment (get your assigned topic number from the People section on Canvas). However, this is an INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT. The "Group" is solely for efficiently communication to each student which topic number from the list below they are assigned. DO NOT communicate with any other student about this assignment. (For group projects groups will indeed be groups; this use of the Canvas group mechanism is a special case.)
• This is an INDIVIDUAL assignment completed by you and you alone. If two students get the same topic, we expect to see two completely independent and different presentations; one for each of those two students. This is a topic assignment and NOT a group assignment (all homeworks are individual, not group).

Note: hand all assignments in on Canvas. Use file name: HWxx_Topicxx_FAMILYNAME_FirstName_AndrewID.ppt for slide hand in. Also acceptable: pptx and .pdf file extensions depending upon file type. Same name with .mp4 for video. Please do NOT zip, tar or otherwise encapsulate the file unless the homework specifically asks for that. Use the same file naming system (with different HW numbers) for other homework hand-ins, although for most homeworks the "_Topicxx" can be omitted in other homeworks when there are no alternate topics assigned.

(Be sure to list citations for references you use as a source for answers. If multiple references say the same thing, you need to only give 1 of them as a source.)

Part 1: On one slide, summarize a system safety story according to the assignment below. You can find a starting point for each story here: https://safeautonomy.blogspot.com/p/safe-autonomy.html. Make sure that your entire answer to this question fits on one slide with minimum font sizes as required in HW #1 (bigger fonts are better). It is much better to use phrases and not full sentences to avoid too many words crowded onto the slide.

• 1-1. Include your scenario number and scenario name (see list below). For example "#2: RMS Titanic" Briefly explain the scenario involved with the failure. Find a secondary source beyond Wikipedia to check that the Wikipedia entry is accurate (generally you can find these listed in the Wikipedia reference list itself -- but do read that secondary reference too!)
• 1-2. What was the loss? (Financial, human lives, or size of loss that was possible but avoided)
• 1-3. What was the technical or other root cause of the failure? Dig a deeper than "something went wrong" Was it purely technical? Cultural? Political? etc.
• 1-4. In your opinion, what could they have done to avoid the failure?
• 1-5. Include a picture. Give a URL for the picture (in most cases it is better to us a tiny URL is fine such as one generated by bit.ly)

Topic assignments are per below, based on your assigned topic number (see above).

1. 1814: London Beer Flood
2. 1889: Johnstown Flood
3. 1912: RMS Titanic
4. 1919: Great Molasses Flood
5. 1937: Hindenburg
6. 1957: Windscale Fire
7. 1959: Minamata Disease
8. 1963: USS Thresher (SSN-593)
9. 1972: DC10 Cargo Door (AA Flight 96)
10. 1979: Three Mile Island
11. 1980: Damascus Titan missile explosion
12. 1981: Ford Pinto
13. 1981: Kansas City Hotel Walkway Collapse
14. 1982: Speedbird BA Flight 9
15. 1983: Gimli Glider
16. 1984: Bhopal
17. 1986: Chernobyl
18. 1987: Therac 25
19. 1988: Piper Alpha
20. 1991: Lauda Air Flight 004
21. 2003: Columbia Space Shuttle
22. 2004: Spirit Mars Rover file system
23. 2006: Nimrod MR2
24. 2009: Air France Flight 447
25. 2010: Deepwater Horizon
26. 2011: Fukushima Daiichi
27. 2011: Wenzhou train crash
28. 2013: Takata airbags
29. 2014: Flint MI Water Crisis
30. 2014: GM ignition switch recall
31. 2015: VW emissions scandal
32. 2017: USS John S McCain
33. 2018: Uber ATG testing fatality
34. 2019: Boeing 737 Max crashes
35. 2021: Horizon IT Scandal
36. 2022: Fern Hollow Bridge Collapse (be sure to note the location is close to CMU)
37. 2023: Oceangate Titan submersible
38. 2024: Baltimore Key Bridge collapse

(A number of notable mishaps are missing from the assigned list because they will be covered in lectures with enough detail that there is no point doing them twice.)

Part 2: Record an approximately 90 second video that talks about your slide according to the following requirements:

• No shorter than 70 seconds. No longer than 120 seconds.
  • 90 seconds is an approximate target. Some topics might run a bit shorter or a bit longer.
  • Hard cutoffs: no credit for 69 seconds or less; no credit for 121 seconds or more
  • Please don't talk super-fast to reduce time. Try speaking at a normal rate and only talk about the important bits. Explaining what matters and what you think the lesson learned should be is more helpful than simply reading the slide. Concentrate on the big story. Only add details that are essential to the big story.
  • The slide does not have to be perfect. If you mis-speak and correct yourself as you speak, or otherwise have a small flaw in the recording that is OK.
• "Talking Head + slide" format including both your slide and your head talking about the slide. (Head + shoulders OK; full body is too small to see facial expression.
  • A zoom recording with both your slide and you talking is likely to be the easy way to do this, but other methods are fine if they produce a viewable result. Record with a quiet background and close enough to the microphone so you can be clearly heard. Camera should be close enough that your head should occupy perhaps 25%-50% of the pixes in the talking head box within your slide, making your facial expressions clearly visible to the viewer.
  • The Project description videos on Canvas are an example using 4:3 aspect ratio recorded on Zoom. We'd prefer you use 16:9 widescreen format to give yourself a bit more space.
• Slide text must be clearly readable. Guidelines that usually work are:
  • Slide size 10" wide x 5.625" high
  • 14 point font or bigger (16 point and larger preferred) If you have too much text for 14 point font to work, SHORTEN THE TEXT. You can use other notes to know what to say. You do not need to put every single word you plan to say on the slide. Keep the text short. Put a note card with details in front of your screen when you are recording if you need help remembering what to say (the recording camera won't see it).
  • At least 720p resolution (1280x720 pixels) although resolutions close to this might work.
  • Talking head does not obscure words or important part of the picture on the slide
• If these requirements pose a significant burden please explain the situation to course staff so we can work something out.

Rubric (all elements must be met for check-off):

Part 1: upload the slide itself to the "slide" Canvas homework assignment.

• One slide with main content (lengthy citations can be on a second slide if needed, but no main content beyond first slide)
• Slide size 10" wide x 5.625" high with 14 point fonts or larger (16 point preferred).
  • CAUTION --- DO NOT use the powerpoint default widescreen size of 13.33" x 7.5" -- you need to custom set the slide size. If you do not do this your fonts will be squished smaller and not be legible.
• Scenario number and name
• Loss
• Root cause
• Opinion for avoiding
• Picture with attribution
• Footer has name and Andrew ID, e.g., KOOPMAN Philip (pk1g)
• File name is HW02_Topicxx_FAMILYNAME_GivenName_AndrewID.ppt (or other extension), e.g., HW02_Topic12_KOOPMAN_Philip_pk1g.pptx
• File uploaded to canvas in native format and displays properly within Canvas. (Make sure you have embedded the fonts when saving/exporting.)

Part 2: upload the recorded video to the "video" Canvas homework assignment.

• One video file no longer than 500 MB (should be a lot smaller for this length).
• File name is HW02_Topicxx_FAMILYNAME_GivenName_AndrewID.mp4
• If other than .mp4 please e-mail staff notifying us at time of submission so we can see if it plays properly within Canvas. If unplayable you might need to find a web service to convert to .mp4.