Crowdsourcing has become a quick and efficient way to solve a wide variety of problems -technical solutions, social and economic actions, fundraising and troubleshooting of numerous issues that affect both the private and the public sectors. US government is now actively using crowdsourcing to solve complex problems that previously had to be handled by a limited circle of professionals. This paper outlines several examples of how a Department of Defense project headquartered at the National

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... nse University is using crowdsourcing for solutions to disaster response problems. Engineering 107 ( 2015 ) 27 -33 2007, it has accumulated years of experience related to non-traditional ways to tackle problems faced by the Department of Defense [1]. TIDES is part of a broader project called STAR-TIDES (Sharing to Accelerate Research). TIDES encourages innovation by tapping into a global network of distributed talent. Central to the STAR-TIDES efforts is the network of thousands of nodes working on humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and emergency response issues -this network includes US government, military and civilian contacts, their international counterparts, as well as a wide variety of private, public and NGO-sector organizations, start-ups and individuals. TIDES often turns to this network for solutions to problems encountered by the DoD in civil-military engagements during and after disasters, as well as to inform DoD of the latest technology innovations and breakthroughs that can facilitate the US military's work in non-traditional settings, including domestic and international disasters and emergencies. This network is at the heart of TIDES project experience with crowdsourcing solutions to disaster response problems. Examples of turning to the crowd for solutions Camp Roberts-RELIEF/JIFX interagency field experiments Over the past four years, TIDES has been involved in efforts to familiarize our DoD colleagues with nongovernment, non-military efforts to crowdsourced solutions in disaster settings. TIDES is part of a broader DoDsponsored set of quarterly field experiments, managed by the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. The purpose of this program, held at Camp Roberts, CA, is to provide a field experimentation resource for the Department of Defense and other federal agencies. In addition, State Department, DHS, FEMA, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, local and international emergency management, disaster response and humanitarian assistance organizations attend to create an innovative cooperative learning environment [2].