Channel Identification & Separation
Stage II, Course 9 · 3 credits · 14 weeks · Design for NCFCA integrity in real systems
Course Purpose
Students learn to design systems that maintain NCFCA channel separation in practice. Channel separation isn't automatic; it must be actively designed, maintained, and verified. This course teaches the concrete techniques, architectures, and verification methods that ensure S → D → I → C never reverses.
By end: Students can map real systems to S/D/I/C, identify contamination risks, design architecture preventing contamination, specify verification tests, and detect when channel separation fails.
Learning Outcomes
- Identify channels in any system — S/D/I/C mapping
- Recognize contamination patterns — how channels corrupt each other
- Design for separation — architecture choices that maintain integrity
- Specify verification tests — tests that catch contamination
- Implement verification — automated checking for channel integrity
- Understand multi-system contamination — cascades across systems
- Apply to diverse domains — organizations, software, biology, markets
Core Concepts
NCFCA, channel-separation, observation, diagnosis, interface, completion, contamination, write-dependency, information-flow, integrity, verification, non-collapsibility
Course Structure (14 weeks)
| Week | Topic |
|---|---|
| 1-2 | Channel identification in diverse domains |
| 3-4 | Contamination patterns and recognition |
| 5-6 | Design for separation: architectural patterns |
| 7-8 | Verification test design |
| 9-10 | Multi-system contamination and cascades |
| 11-12 | Implementation and automation |
| 13-14 | Capstone: complete system design with verification |
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