In this popular Stanford class, students build tech for the military

As the Pentagon looks to Silicon Valley to help solve the U.S.’s biggest defense challenges, the Hacking for Defense class aims to mint a new wave of defense tech startups.

Originally published by Mark Sullivan

Stanford remains Silicon Valley’s singular institution—the root of its vibrancy and hegemony. And because of Stanford Research Park, whose original tenants included Lockheed Martin and other defense contractors, it’s also a physical reminder of the huge role defense played in the early life of the Valley. Even though the industry around it has moved on to smartphones and social networks, a popular course at the university has made Stanford’s defense connection current again.

In Hacking for Defense, students spend the semester in teams and are challenged to build tech products that address actual problems submitted by defense and intelligence agency sponsors. The class was started in 2016 by Stanford historian and entrepreneur Steve Blank, ex-Army Colonel and current BMNT CEO Pete Newell, and Joe Felter, a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense and current Hoover Institution fellow. The class turned into a federally sponsored program the following year, funded by the National Defense Authorization Act. You can now find Hacking for Defense classes following the Stanford model at 55 U.S. universities. As of last spring, 2000 students had taken the H4D course.