HORIBA MIRA’s Dr David Ward Appointed Visiting Professor in Functional Safety at Coventry University

Dr David Ward, Head of Functional Safety at HORIBA MIRA has been appointed as Visiting Professor in Functional Safety at Coventry University.

Dr Ward has accepted the appointment at Coventry University which recognises his 25 years in the field of reliability and safety of automotive electronic systems. He will be offering his guidance and experience to students on courses within the Faculty of Engineering, Environment and Computing at the University.

David’s work has been instrumental in the development of standards and guidelines for the design, development and verification of embedded software, which has significant implications for vehicle safety. Students at Coventry University will now be able to learn from Dr Ward’s expertise, helping lay the foundations to forge their own careers in electrical and electronic engineering.

Within his role at HORIBA MIRA, David is responsible for independent safety assessment, training and consultancy in functional safety standard ISO 26262 and other related standards. David is also the UK principal technical expert to the ISO 26262 committee. He is involved in automotive cybersecurity as well as technology development in functional safety, intelligent and connected vehicles and hybrid and electric vehicles.

Professor Mike Blundell, Associate Dean for Enterprise at Coventry University, said:

“We are delighted to welcome Dr Ward to our faculty at Coventry University. His experience in the field of functional safety and software systems will be invaluable and our students will learn a great deal from him.

“At Coventry University we pride ourselves on being a forward-looking modern University and a provider of high quality education and we believe Dr Ward will help us continue this standard of teaching.”

Dr George Gillespie OBE, CEO at HORIBA MIRA, said:

 “We are incredibly pleased for David and the support he is giving to local universities. Functional safety is becoming increasingly important due to the rise of intelligent mobility and increasingly complex software systems.

“David’s contributions to the field have assisted HORIBA MIRA in becoming leaders in functional safety. HORIBA MIRA’s techniques are accepted as global automotive standards and have now been adopted by numerous sectors, providing extensive enhancements to vehicle safety.”

The new VI-grade DiM250 will be commissioned and ready for use as part of vehicle attribute engineering services at HORIBA MIRA from Q1 2023.HORIBA MIRA regularly works in partnership with Coventry University on a variety of consortium projects as well as sharing expertise through visiting professorships and providing ongoing support to PhD programmes.