National security partnership has Florida Poly students solving pressing military problems

Originally published by Erica Johnson

Hacking for Defense (H4D), a program of the Department of Defense’s National Security Innovation Network (NSIN), challenges students at some of the nation’s top universities to find solutions to a wide variety of the military’s communications, logistics, and modernization problems.

Florida’s State University System is encouraging all its member institutions to participate in the H4D program and Florida Poly is among the very first to do so. 

“What makes Hacking for Defense incredible is students get to serve their country while learning how to build a startup to solve real national security problems,” said Tommy Sowers, southeast regional director of NSIN. “Florida is a huge military state and has great universities, but the ability for university students to work and make a connection to a real problem in the military, and also for the military to connect with the fantastic problem solvers inside universities, doesn’t normally happen.”