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13 February 2020

Second 'Hacking For MoD' module completed at Defence Academy of the UK

Defence Studies Department students excel in the second Hacking For Ministry of Defence module

Students
Following a successful pilot, the second Defence Studies Department 'Hacking for Ministry of Defence' cohort on the Advanced Command and Staff Course at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom delivered impressive final presentations on Wednesday 12th February.

To combat problems put forward from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and the Royal Air Force, the two student teams conducted a combined 211 interviews over eight weeks, burning through 20 hypotheses, with one team tracking 430 hours spent on the course. One team delivered a minimum viable product to their sponsor's organisation, prompting them to say "I would buy that right now if I could". The other team got to the root of their sponsor's issue, saving the sponsor precious funds.

The 'Hacking for Defence' program is sponsored by the National Security Innovation Network. Taught at approximately thirty universities across the USA, the programme recently underwent its UK pilot in King's Defence Studies Department. The programme encourages students to devise innovative solutions to national security problems by leveraging Silicon Valley innovation methods, including the Lean Start-Up model based on experimentation and learning.

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