University Students Tackle DHS Challenges in Third Hacking for Homeland Security Course

Originally published by S&T, the research and development arm of DHS.

Today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the launch of the third Hacking for Homeland Security (H4HS), a joint educational partnership between the DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), BMNT Inc., and the Common Mission Project (CMP) in collaboration with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Participating students will focus on challenges associated with cybersecurity information sharing within transportation, the latency issue at screening checkpoints, and address greenspace issues after natural disasters.

“Hacking for Homeland Security offers a unique opportunity for the Department of Homeland Security to involve students in real-world problem-solving experiences,” said Kathleen Kenyon, S&T H4HS Program Lead. “We have had great success with the first two courses, and we hope that H4HS will continue to inspire the next generation of students to enter public service.” 

H4HS is sponsored and funded by S&T and works with universities to solve pressing challenges by engaging engineering, business, and policy students from prestigious universities in developing solutions to homeland security-sponsored challenges. Over the course of a semester, undergraduate and graduate student teams work closely with DHS to deliver innovative solutions.

"This is a great program and I'm excited to see what solutions the students come up with,” said Paul Huang, FEMA Acting Associate Administrator for Resilience. “They are passionate, innovative, and bring a fresh set of eyes to various problems we are trying to tackle."