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For the last five years, Army veteran Alex Gallo and the Common Mission Project have been partnering with military officials to use teams of college students in solving a host of equipment and personnel challenges at the Defense Department.

Now the team wants to expand that idea to the rest of the world’s problems too.

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.

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.

For one military helicopter medevac Commander, on-the-job stress is an understatement. He describes regular 72-hour shifts, falling asleep while operating a helicopter, and being in situations of persistent gunfire -- targeted at him. He has medically evacuated more than 6,000 Soldiers in multiple deployments, and has had to relieve medics who were mentally unfit to perform. He says he wishes he could have known and recognized the warning signs with his people and himself earlier. “You don’t have to be ‘real done’ to take a break,” he says.

A budding startup out of Stanford is developing a solution that could help the medevac Commander and others in his shoes. Known as NeuroSmart, the team came together during a recent Hacking 4 Defense (H4D) cohort with a passion for measuring and reducing stress and stress impacts. During their H4D coursework, they began working with Army Research Lab to test and modify their concepts through the high-intensity environment of Army combat training. They ended the semester with a potential solution to stress measurement and management that could enhance one’s ability to think clearly and maintain optimal decision-making skills. Now they are on their way to launching an innovative startup. Here’s a look at their journey through the class and a summer cohort of the H4XLabs enterprise accelerator, which helped them expand their understanding of stress and stress management into multiple industries; reimagine the diverse applications for their products; and prepare to launch NeuroSmart.

Editor’s note: This is one in an occasional series sharing the journeys of students who have gone through Hacking for MoD and the other mission-driven entrepreneurship courses The Common Mission Project oversees.

By Dr. Ali Hawks

When Lila Ghosh began her master’s programme at King's College in London, she was drawn to H4MoD, the academic programme that is helping to solve national security problems at speed, because of the opportunity to work with actual stakeholders within the Ministry of Defense. She was returning to school after a long period in the workforce, and while excited to be in academia again, she really wanted to maintain a level of practical engagement. For her, the opportunity to engage with real-world problems and create tangible solutions couldn’t be ignored. Little did she know that her decision to pursue H4MoD would define her career and help position her as a leading innovator by the time she completed her degree.

Today, Ghosh is the founder and CEO of Ox Intel, a growing startup operating in the UK and the U.S. that helps design, develop and deploy technology to improve human-led decision-making.

Starting this spring semester, George Washington University graduate students will be able to take Hacking for Defense, a course that takes an entrepreneurial and interdisciplinary approach in solving national security challenges in the United States.

The congressionally funded class, listed as MGT 6290, is in partnership with the Department of Defense and offered through GW’s School of Business (GWSB). It is a program of the National Security Innovation Network (NSIN), powered by BMNT, Inc. and the Common Mission Project with a hands-on structure as students will split into teams and create a business model designed to address some key areas of need in intelligence and defense. GW will be one of 50 schools in the country to teach the course that started in 2016 at Stanford University.