A 10-16 week college course pairing interdisciplinary teams with DoD organizations, utilizing entrepreneurial methods to solve national security problems.

Overview

  • A university course that teaches students to work with the Defense and Intelligence Communities to rapidly address the nation’s emerging threats and security challenges.
  • By the end of the course, student teams will have conducted at least 100 stakeholder interviews and developed a minimally viable product (MVP) concept that addresses the needs of their DoD problem sponsor.

About Hacking for Defense (H4D)

In H4D courses, interdisciplinary student teams are provided with real-world national security problems sourced from DoD agencies. Teams are instructed in and apply Lean Startup principles in order to iteratively develop and test potential solutions.

For students, H4D represents an unparalleled opportunity to closely work on real-world national security problems with DoD personnel and agencies. In addition to offering this unique academic experience, partner universities have received significant publicity from top news outlets including Foreign Policy, Forbes, Wired, Bloomberg, and The Washington Post.

For problem sponsors, involvement in H4D is a force multiplier for their toughest problems. By the end of the course, sponsors are provided with an MVP that addresses their problem and have gained exposure to a novel problem-solving framework. In addition, sponsors receive a more refined and curated problem set by the end of the course.

Applications

Contact the H4D team below.

Frequently Asked Questions

What topics have been work on in past H4D iterations?

Past government problem topics have come from a range of organizations including: the Joint Improvised Threat Defeat Organization (JIDO), U.S. Navy 3rd Fleet, the Army Asymmetric Warfare Group, the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, U.S. Special Operations Command, Army Cyber Command, Air Force Office of Energy Assurance, and the National Security Agency (NSA).

Questions about H4D?

For more information on participating in Hacking for Defense, email h4d@nsin.mil.

Team

  • Caitlin Bowers
    Caitlin Bowers

    Azimuth Program Manager, H4D Program Manager

    LinkedIn