HUNTER AUSTEGARD


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Hunter Austegard has been teaching courses in system safety and software safety since 1992 -
​all courses can be attended live online:
​
These courses have been, and continue to be, attended by many (211) notable organizations from around the world.  In addition, he is often invited to teach courses on site both here in the U.S. and overseas (e.g., Spain, England, Germany, Austria, Turkey, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, India, Brazil). 

​Take a look at our courseware testimonials (e.g., "Hunter is really the most knowledgeable person I've met regarding system and software safety").

Hunter is world renowned for his knowledge of:
  • system safety dating back to 1988, and
  • software safety (including various operating systems, and programming languages) dating back to 1986.  

His experience spans the safety-critical sectors of:
  • defense,​
  • aviation (ground-based and airborne; civil and defense),
  • rail (light {e.g., JFK AirTrain}, heavy {e.g., PTC}, subway, commuter, and high speed {e.g., 350 km/h}),
  • nuclear power generation (Hydro One {originally Ontario Hydro} nuclear reactor control, shutdown, and fuel handling),
  • unmanned system safety,
  • process control, and
  • medical devices (commencing with the THERAC-25 cancer therapy machine that was killing patients - that's right - Hunter was the person who was called in to analyze and correct its software).

Hunter is the originator of:
  • Optimal Hazard Identification (OHI), and
  • Optimal Hazard Logging (OHL) techniques

as well as 28 Fault Tree Analysis Acceptance/Rejection Criteria.

As a result of his education (electrical engineering and computer science) and the depth and breadth of his knowledge and experience, he is classified as a seasoned system safety and software safety engineer. 

Hunter is experienced with:​
  • all system safety standards (e.g., FRA, SAE ARP4754A, SAE ARP4761 {including its strengths, weaknesses and incorrectness}, MIL-STD-882B/C/D/E {including strengths, weaknesses and incorrectness - that's right! there are flaws in 882E as well}, DEF STAN 00-56, IEC 61508, CENELEC EN 50126, EN 50128, EN 50129), all guidelines (e.g., FAA System Safety Handbook, FAA SRMGSA, JSSSEH, AMCOM 385-17), and
  • all system safety, software safety, and risk analysis techniques (e.g., SSMP, SSPP, SwSPP, PHL, PHA, HL, SHA, SSHA, IHA, CCA {including ZSA, PRA, and CMA}, O&SHA, FHA, PSSA, SSA, FTA, SFTA, FMEA, FMECA, SFMEA, HAZOP, What-If, SAR, Safety Case). 

​He is also experienced in the areas of RAM, safety audits, safety management, system safety working groups/committees, software safety working groups/committees.

He has:​
  • received numerous commendations (e.g., MOD Safety System Manager),
  • been interviewed by newspapers, magazines, 
  • appeared on television, and
  • over 7,200 LinkedIn connections.

Hunter is known for his key note speaking engagements and continues to receive invitations from organizations and interest groups to participate in conferences and to sit on technical committees.

In addition he continues to receive confidential calls from:
  • U.S. Government organizations, and
  • corporate staff
to solicit his professional opinion.  For example:
  • "Hunter, you're not going to believe what just happened" OR
  • "what would you do given this situation?" OR
  • "we could do with your help judging the pedigree of our supplier's safety engineers" OR
  • "if you were us what would you watch out for?" VERY POPULAR OR
  • "our supplier has a RAMS manager but this person only knows RAM; what should we do"? OR
  • "our customer has specified that they want us to comply with both MIL-STD-882E and SAE ARP4761" OR
  • ​"our customer is asking us for this" OR
  • "I am the only safety engineer on this project (our company underbid)" OR
  • "what do you think of this?" (this latter one is often asked, off to the side, at courses he presents).  

Prior to the 9/11 disaster it was not uncommon for Hunter to be invited to the flight deck when the crew became aware of his knowledge and expertise in aviation safety.  Regarding this horrible tragedy, Hunter was indeed fortunate when one of his contracts, which required him to attend meetings on the 63rd floor of Tower 1 of the World Trade Center, expired 2 months before the disaster.

Hunter Austegard received Bachelor's and Master's degrees summa cum laude in:​
  • electrical engineering (graduating 3rd in a class of 116 students), and
  • computer science.  
He was also accepted into the PhD program at M.I.T. with scholarships. 

​Hunter possesses a brilliant mind with an IQ measured at 145. Despite all of this, he abhors boasting and is a very humble man.