RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety)

The RAMS research group has been methodically advancing the fields of Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, and Safety. With a consistent focus on research excellence and educational enrichment, the group has established itself as a notable contributor to both academia and industry.

Establishment of the RAMS group can be traced back to 1980’s, when relevant courses were developed as the response to the Bravo blowout on the Ekofisk field in 1977 and the increasing safety concerns in the Norwegian offshore industries. The group was built after Marvin Rausand started his full-time position from January 1990, and joining of Jørn Vatn and Per Schjølberg some years later.

The RAMS research group is renowned for its focus on four pillar research directions in terms of methodologies used in RAMS engineering:

• Reliability engineering, including reliability assessment of critical infrastructure and safety-critical systems, experimental reliability data analysis, and system resilience analysis, performance analysis of cyber-physical systems.
• Maintenance, including fault diagnosis, system degradation modelling and analysis, prognosis and health monitoring of technical systems, maintenance planning and management, and smart methods for maintenance.
• Risk management, including risk analysis, accident investigation and analysis, consequence analysis of accidents, risk-informed decision-making, and disaster management.
• Social security/safety and sustainability, with considering safety management for social-technical systems under deliberate sabotages and cyber-attacks, vulnerability of technical infrastructure under green transition, as well as natural-disaster triggered technical accidents.

Members of the RAMS group kept changing during the period of 2012-2022. The past members in the RAMS group during this period include Professor Marvin Rausand (2012-2015, emeritus since 2016), Associate Professor Per Schjølberg (2012-2020), Professor Mary Ann Lundteigen (2013-2019), Professor Stein Haugen (2012-2014), Professor Anne Barros (2014-2019), Professor Antoine Rauzy (2015-2018), Associate Professor Cecilia Haskins (60%, 2017-2019), and Bjørn Axel Gran (Professor II, 2012-2017).

At the end of 2022, the faculty members in the RAMS group are:

• Professor Shen Yin, since end of 2020, Group leader and DNV Endowed Professor, specializing in fault diagnosis, machine learning/data-driven approaches for diagnosis and control, and system security.
• Professor Jørn Vatn, since 2012, specializing in maintenance planning and optimization, safety culture, risk influence modelling, and social security.
• Professor Yiliu Liu, since 2013, specializing in system reliability engineering, risk-informed decision-making, and performance analysis of safety-critical systems.
• Professor Nicola Paltrinieri, since 2016, specializing in risk assessment, risk-informed decision-making, risk management, and disaster management
• Associate Professor Federico Ustolin, since 2022, specializing in risk assessment and consequent analysis of accidents.
• Associate Professor Hyung Ju Kim, since 2023, specializing in maintenance management, safety and risk analysis, and marine applications.
• University Lecturer Viggo Gabriel Borg Pedersen, since 2016, focusing on undergraduate education in the fields of reliability and maintenance, as well as contributing to the RAMS Lab.