Bachelor and Master Theses

Ontologies have gained popularity as a way to analyze properties of critical computer-based systems. Today there exist ontologies that allow people to analyze both safety and security aspects of systems such as “how failures can lead to hazards”, “how security attacks impact a system” etc. Although ontologies are powerful instruments that produce large amounts of data for an analyst, very little has been reported about the useability of ontologies, i.e., the user's (first time users or experienced ones) actual experiences when using ontologies. Gaining understanding of the user experience is crucial when developing tool-support and features that incorporate ontologies for analysis.

The goal of this thesis is to investigate the useability of ontologies for analysis of risks in critical systems. The study starts by focusing on relevant scientific literature on safety and security ontologies and suitable metrics to classify user experience. The study then continues with the use of actual ontologies where the student is expected to apply ontologies on different types of systems (e.g., transport systems or automotive systems), and classify and summarize their own experience of it, based on metrics. Furthermore, the study should provide guidelines to e.g., tool-developers that facilitate the use of ontologies from a user perspective.

This study is only suitable for one student.

Excellent knowledge of English

Knowledge of safety critical systems