Scouting Urban Locations

When six students from across the University of Chicago came together to tackle a problem from the Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade, they didn’t know they’d still be working on it months after the course ended. They just knew it mattered.

The problem: how to make room-clearing in dense, urban environments safer, smarter, and faster. The kind of challenge that felt ripped from tomorrow’s headlines, where megacities, not mountains, will define the next era of combat.

What the Army wanted was open-ended. Maybe a better flashbang. Maybe something totally different. What the team built was a new kind of battlefield awareness: a system using RF sensing technology to see through walls, integrated with AI to distinguish between civilians and threats, and synced directly with soldier communication systems like ATAK. Think tactical intelligence before breaching a door. Think lives saved before a round is ever fired.

But this wasn’t a team of engineers or former operators. It was a cross-disciplinary cohort brought together by a shared sense of mission:

• Ariel Jen, a Booth MBA student and former industrial designer who led UX projects at Honda and then pivoted into video game product management, brought a user-centered design sensibility, and a bold streak honed by launching Honda’s first all-female off-road race team and competing in the Rebelle Rally.

• Malcolm Miller, a Booth MBA student and former consultant who specialized in aerospace and defense strategy, provided industry context, structured execution, and the drive to move beyond analysis into real-world impact.

• Omar Ansari, now a Harris School MPP graduate with roots in cyber policy, international development, and trade compliance, came in with little technical background, but left with hands-on defense innovation experience and a new understanding of what it means to build for national security.

From the start, the University of Chicago’s version of H4D pushed them to think like founders. The course, taught by entrepreneur Will Gossin and legal scholar Todd Henderson, operated more like a startup accelerator than a traditional seminar. Teams didn’t just analyze problems. They pitched solutions: products, markets, dual-use models. The goal wasn’t a perfect slide deck. It was real-world traction. And they got it.

Over the course of the program, the team interviewed dozens of current and former military operators, many with direct experience in room-clearing and CQB. What they heard was consistent: the highest-risk moment in any mission is what you can’t see. Corners. Doors. Hallways. Stairs. If soldiers could see before they entered, they could plan smarter, strike safer, and protect lives.

That insight became their North Star, and led to a concept that’s now being road-tested with stakeholders across the defense and public safety ecosystem.

What Comes Next

Their momentum didn’t stop with finals. With pre-seed funding from Common Mission’s Innovation Fund, the team continued customer discovery, interface development, and technical recruitment throughout the spring. Malcolm and Omar attended SOF Week in Tampa to pressure-test their concept with special operations leaders. Ariel, Christy, and team continued refining the product’s software interface and mockups.

They also hit their first major wall: a rejection from DIU’s summer accelerator. But instead of folding, they doubled down.

“We knew this wouldn’t be easy,” Ariel said. “We knew this was the long road. But we believe in what we’re building, and we’re not done yet.”

Today, the team is still active. Still iterating. Still pushing toward a prototype they believe could not only shift how the U.S. military operates in urban environments, but also offer powerful tools to first responders, law enforcement, and disaster relief teams.

They came in as students. They left as builders. And they’re just getting started.