The International Emergency Management Society (TIEMS) was established in 1993 as an NGO providing a platform for all stakeholders within the global emergency and disaster management community to meet, network, and learn about best practices as well as new technical and operational methodologies. TIEMS sponsors numerous conferences and workshops across the world each year, attended by members from more than 30 countries.
Dr. Robertson has been Director, North America Operations for TIEMS since 2014. As part of his work with TIEMS, he founded the US Chapter, organized conferences, participated in several European Union projects, and taught courses at Ecole des Mines in Ales, France, and in the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus. Examples of this work are shown below.
As a result of his work in this area, Dr. Robertson has been recognized as a European Innovation Council Expert in Small and Medium Enterprises. In this capacity he has been asked to evaluate dozens of project proposals to the EU, and he is an evaluator for several ongoing projects in artificial intelligence, financial technologies, and satellite ground stations.
AI Risks and Emergency Management
At the 2021 TIEMS Annual Conference, hosted by the TIEMS French Chapter in Paris, Dr. Robertson presented an overview of the strengths, applications, and risks of modern AI technology, and how the emergency management community can play a role in mitigating those risks.
Applying Artificial Intelligence to Emergency and Disaster Management
The paper below, published in the August 2020 TIEMS Newsletter Issue no. 39, answers the questions “What is AI?” and “How can AI help emergency and disaster management?”.
Human Factors in Disaster Management
In the spring of 2019, Dr. Robertson developed and presented a 40-hour course “Human Factors in Disaster Management” at IMT Mines Ales, France, as part of their Disaster Management and Environmental Impact Masters program
Improving Public Health Communication During Pandemics
The ASSET program was a four-year program sponsored by the European Commission, to respond to lessons learned during the 2009 H1 N1 pandemic – that plans to respond to pandemics will not succeed unless the public is more fully engaged in the planning process. Dr. Robertson and TIEMS were responsible for developing a handbook and toolbox, and for leading a High-Level Policy Forum for top-level officials in government, academia, and industry.
Preserving Cultural Heritage Sites During Climate Change
HERACLES was a three-year program sponsored by the European Commission to develop procedures, processes, and an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) platform to assist cultural heritage site conservators in assessing and anticipating the need for cultural site preservation activities. TIEMS was responsible for developing operational procedures, and Dr. Robertson wrote the Best Practices Handbook, summarizing the results of the project.
Applications of Advanced Information Technologies for Disaster Risk Reduction
This presentation was made at the 2018 TIEMS Annual Conference in Manila, Philippines.
Use of Virtual Simulation for Emergency Management
This paper was presented in 2015 at the King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The TIEMS 2016 Annual Conference, San Diego, California
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