Q&A with Alex Gallo: Common Mission Project
This month marks the fifth anniversary of the first Hacking For Defense (H4D) course at Stanford University. In this Q&A, Alex Gallo, Executive Director of the Common Mission Project (CMP), looks back at the impact H4D and other Hacking programs have made, and ahead to CMP’s advancing mission.
Looking back over the last five years, where have you seen H4D, and the other Hacking programs CMP facilitates make the biggest impact?
Alex: The impact begins with the ecosystem we have been able to create. It is a model for mission-driven entrepreneurship that is achieving results, incorporating governments at every level, top universities, and the private sector. Today’s most pressing problems aren’t going to be solved through stovepipes or verticals; they are going to be solved across sectors. The ecosystem we’ve created facilitates the kind of cross-sector creative approaches these pressing problems require.
For example, a recent H4D team at Ohio State was working on assessing counter drone (cUAS) capabilities for the National Guard. As they assessed the problem across sectors, they discovered that the Guard’s challenge wasn’t technological, there were plenty of solutions available. The Guard’s challenge was rooted in policy, there were too many regulations inhibiting a workable cUAS mission. The team switched sectors and drafted new policies and regulations for the Guard to advance.
In this ecosystem, it is the students who have made the biggest impact. Students are becoming more interested in critical public problems. They are eager to take on everything from national security to natural disasters, from energy to the environment. We match their energy and ingenuity with innovative problem-solving methods. They become part of the H4 ecosystem, and even start their own companies, sustaining those solutions and supporting our economy.
The pandemic did not slow CMP down in 2020. How did CMP pivot its approach to ensure mission-driven entrepreneurs remained engaged?
Alex: We didn’t slow down. In fact, through CMP, we are solving more problems at more universities, and we are benefitting from more talent - from the government, universities around the world, and the private sector - than ever before.
We were careful to encourage that talent and energy. Using online platforms, we were able to provide students with applied, experiential education. The environment may have been virtual, but the skills the students have learned are very real. Their ability to take those skills and make the world a better place, despite the pandemic, is the impact that stands out to me the most.
Looking to the next five years, how do you see CMP's work changing the way society approaches problem solving?
Alex: CMP will change the way society solves problems by empowering people. Indeed, by changing the way we solve our problems, we will be changing the culture around problem-solving towards a society that sees our "common mission."
When you broaden participation, you get better, more durable, results. We ensure that our solutions can be sustained long into the future because they are market-based, come from a broader talent pool, integrate entities across sectors, and are focused on actually solving the problem for those who experience it.
CMP is changing the approach and the culture around problem-solving. Problem-solving isn’t occurring in just one organization or in one sector anymore. The problem-solving process is no longer linear, and solutions are no longer the exclusive domain of experts with decades of experience. Results aren’t going to be just new problems masquerading as solutions anymore.
CMP’s focus over the next five years will be to expand the Hacking ecosystem and bring cross-sector, interdisciplinary, and dynamic entrepreneurial problem-solving to every type of problem area across society. Most importantly, we’ll expand the ecosystem in a way that broadens participation to everyone. Entrepreneurial problem-solving will no longer be exclusively for the exquisitely experienced or deeply connected. It will be an endeavor that everyone can participate in.
Learn more about CMP’s impact
DOWNLOAD THE 2020 ANNUAL REPORT
2020 was a year of expansion and impact for the Common Mission Project. Over the course of the year we:
Initiated three new "Hacking for" programs
Continued to scale our impact with Hacking for Defense at 44 universities across the United States
Expanded the Common Mission Project in the United Kingdom
Established the Common Mission Project in Australia
Validated hundreds of problems and had a 58-percent solution adoption rate through our H4 mission-driven entrepreneurship programs