George Romanski, Director of Safety Critical Software, Aonix
 

Safety critical systems may have deadly consequences if they fail. Software expresses the algorithms which make systems versatile. How do we balance the flexibility software gives us, with the safety of these control systems? If your life depended on correct and timely execution, what steps would you take to make sure you won't die? What steps would you expect others to take on systems that you use? Can we recognize the characteristics of software that appear to increase risk of system hazard? Can we remove these risks or make them "acceptably improbable"? What role does Ada play in these systems? Can we put our hands over our hearts and say "trust me – it’s safe"?

 George Romanski is the Director of Safety Critical Software at Aonix. He has specialized in the production of software development environments for the last 28 years. The work focused on compilers, cross compilers, run-time systems and tools, primarily for embedded real time applications in several languages, but focusing on Ada over the last 18 years.

Over the last six years George Romanski has concentrated on software tools and certification materials for safety critical applications. The results of the work have been used on avionics, railway and nuclear applications at the highest levels of criticality.