August 16, 2017

2017-2018 Seminar Series: Keeping Seattle Safe

During the 2017-2018 academic year, the Center for Collaborative Systems for Security, Safety, and Regional Resilience (CoSSaR) will offer a quarterly seminar series on the theme of Keeping Seattle Safe. Over the year, exciting speakers will engage with the UW community on topics that range from community resilience, to emergency management, to national security and law enforcement. Speakers will be drawn from ongoing CoSSaR partnerships with local, state, and Federal agencies aimed at designing and developing collaborative systems that support regional security, safety, and resilience.

The 2017-2018 CoSSaR Seminar Series will kick off on September 18, 2017, with a presentation on creating a culture of preparedness to disasters by Kathleen Tierney, Emeritus Professor of Sociology and former Director of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Professor Tierney will share her findings on the social dimensions of hazards and disasters, including natural, technological, and human-induced extreme events. In October 2017 and beyond, CoSSaR’s seminar series will continue with regional experts discussing transportation incident and congestion management, which has become a hot topic in recent years with the growing population in the Seattle area. In collaboration with the new UW Mobility Innovation Center (MIC) and regional leadership consortium Challenge Seattle (led by former Governor Christine Gregoire), CoSSaR is exploring how city and state agencies can improve incident response.

Through this partnership, CoSSaR is working closely with the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), Washington State Patrol, and the city of Seattle to enhance the traffic incident management (TIM) system and related services. CoSSar is excited to bring in speakers from TIM partner agencies who will share their perspectives and expertise on transportation initiatives, TIM research, and more.

The seminar series is free and open to the public. Stay tuned for announcements about our upcoming speakers, dates, and locations.