New technologies target disaster relief

Public Safety continues to have challenges around the globe. After Hurricane Katrina and other disasters, the emphasis has created new policies for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) and Health and Human Services (HHS) in the U.S. and the same in Canada with reorganisation of Public Safety Emergency Preparedness Canada (PSEPC) into a streamlined organisation now called Public Safety Canada.

All are improving their abilities to support any disaster and crisis in North America. But what about the rest of the world where the U.S., Canada and other western nations can't always respond with assets and resources? Since 2007, a new organisation is working to change that. An outgrowth of the Strong Angel program is STAR-TIDES, which focuses on creating new technology and applications that can be used anywhere in the world during a disaster and post-disaster reconstruction.

It's an amazing effort put forward by a plethora of volunteers and people based out of the National Defense University in Washington D.C. Dr. Lin Wells, former Deputy Secretary in the Office of Secretary of Defense for Networks, Integration and Information (OSD-NII), is spearheading many new initiatives that created this organisation.

It is an international, knowledge-sharing research project to encourage sustainable support to stressed populations (post-war, post-disaster, impoverished).  TIDES stands for Transformative Innovation for Development and Emergency Support.  It is part of a broader research project called Sustainable Technologies, Accelerated Research (hence STAR-TIDES).

The goals are to: •    Enhance the ability of civilians to operate in stressed environments. •    Extend the military's ability to interoperate with them. •    Economize, through the use of low cost logistics and rationalizing supply chains.

They currently are demonstrating new ideas, technologies and applications at Fort McNair from Oct. 7 -9. Check it out if you're in the area!