TIDES at Pentagon Center Court

TIDES had two and a half excellent days at the Center Court of the Pentagon from November 18-20.

On Sunday a team of volunteers, including twelve students from
Engineers Without Borders at the Johns Hopkins University, assembled
two hexayurts, a Shelter Box tent, and a Yurt Dome shelter to join the
UniFold shelter that had been set up on Friday. The weather was
beautiful for the set-up.

On Monday and Tuesday several hundred visitors toured the site,
including John Grimes, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and
Information Integration and DoD Chief Information Officer; Ryan Henry,
Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Policy); Jim Finley,
Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology, and
Peter F. Verga, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Homeland
Defense and American Affairs. Representatives from a number of the
combatant commanders also visited, as did folks from FEMA and DHS

Cold and dreary weather reinforced the importance of integrated
approaches to cooking as Pat McCardle prepared dinner over high
efficiency stoves and continued the cooking in insulated baskets after
the direct heat stopped being applied. These approaches have saved over
80% of fuel compared with open pit fires.

Following the demo on Tuesday afternoon, key materials were moved to
a hilltop site in western Virginia, where they were assembled on
Saturday. This site will be used for long-term exposure testing and
further concept development. The next weeks will be spent documenting
the lessons learned from phase one of the TIDES project, which has now
been concluded. However, the TIDES network will continue to share
information on sustainable solutions in support of people in stressed
environments. Members of the STAR-TIDES team are supporting relief
efforts in Bangladesh, as they did in the Southern California fires.