Introduction to current fire modeling techniques for building fire safety assessment. Application of various computer-based fire models to representative problems. For students who have definite plans for individual study of approved problems, or study of an advanced topic selected in conjunction with the faculty. Repeatable to 6 credits. Key topics include the use of model codes, administrative regulation, retrospective codes, federal preemption, arson, performance based codes, risk based regulation, engineering malpractice, product liability and disaster investigation.
New technologies can force changes in existing legal regimes.
Key topics include biotechnology, safety regulation, federal preemption, product liability, professional negligence, antitrust, privacy and information technology, risk modeling, environmental protection, patent, copyright, trade secrets, reverse engineering, scientific and technological evidence, international trade, engineering ethics. Examples include plane crashes, computer chip protection, human machine interfaces, nuclear power plants, Internet censorship, flood control, earthquakes and biomedical technology. Selected topics of current importance to fire protection. Limited to a total of 6 credits.