Mechanical Engineering Faculty Profile:

Dr. Carol Smidts
Visiting Associate Professor of Reliability Engineering

(301) 405-7314 | csmidts@umd.edu | Room 0160, Glenn L. Martin Hall

Vita
Research focuses on Probabilistic Dynamics for Complex Systems, Human Reliability and Software Reliability and has led to 12 journal publications in archival journals, 25 refereed conference proceedings, 2 book chapters, several seminars and invited papers. Dr. Smidts has been a referee for Reliability Engineering and Systems Safety, Nuclear Science and Engineering, John Wiley and Sons Scientific Publications, ISSRE. Her student has been awarded the ARINC Award in 1995. She was part of the technical program committee for International Topical Meeting on Man-Machine Systems. She is part of the technical committee of the First International Conference on Mathematical Methods in Reliability (MMR’97), and member of the technical committee for Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management (PSAM 4). She was session chair in PSAM3, PSA96. Dr. Smidts has developed two new graduate courses entitled “Human Reliability” and “Software Reliability and Its Integrity.” She is currently developing a Software Reliability Engineering Curriculum, the first in the US with the support of NSA. She has also taught Principles of Engineering Design and Mathematical Techniques of Reliability Engineering.

Education
Ph.D., University Libre de Bruxelles, 1994

Recent Publications
Stutzke, M., and C. Smidts, “A Stochastic Model of Human Error During Software Development,” IEEE Transactions on Reliability, Vol. 50, No. 2, pp. 184-193, 2001.

Smidts, C. J. Widmaier, and X. Huang, “Producing Reliable Software: An Experiment,” accepted for publication in Journal of Systems and Software, Elsevier.

Smidts, C., “Stochastic Modelling of the Impact of Repair Times on Software Development Errors,” accepted for publication in EEE Transactions on Reliability.

Li, B., M. Li, and C. Smidts, “Integrating Software into PRA: A Taxonomy of Software Related Failures,” 6th IEEE International Symposium on High Assurance Systems Engineering, Fast Abstracts, Boca Raton, FL, October 2001.

Li, M., A. Sinha, and C. Smidts, “Validation of a Methodology for Assessing Software Quality,” accepted for the proceedings of PSAM6, San Juan, Puerto Rico, June 2002.

Scientific and Professional Membership
Technical Program Committee Member, Mosim ‘01 and ISSRE ‘01; Co-chair, student papers, ISSRE ‘01; ANS Standing Committee on PRA for Reactor Safety Division; Reviewer, ISSRE 2001, IEEE Transactions on Reliability, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering

Honors and Awards
Patent #6223143: QRAS, 1.0 Software developed for NASA to perform the Probabilistic Risk Assessment of the Space Shuttle and of the International Space Station; Patent filing: Common Cause Failure; Provisional Patent filing, SUPRA

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