Designing for Defense is a course at leading United States universities that provides United States Department of Defense (DoD) leaders with the opportunity to collaborate with talented student teams to develop innovative solutions to their most pressing defensive national security problems. This course is run in collaboration with many U.S. national security organizations that connect university students with impactful DoD problems.

NEW AS OF 2024!: For the first time D4D is now offered as a two-semester course spanning the academic year starting in the fall of 2024.  During the first semester (fall) students register under ASEN/CSCI/CYBR 5550.  During the second semester (spring) the course title is ASEN/CSCI/CYBR 5580. 

In D4D courses, interdisciplinary student teams are provided with real-world national security problems sourced from DoD and governmental agencies such as NASA. Then, student teams are instructed in, and apply, Lean Startup principles in order to iteratively develop and test potential solutions. By the end of the course, student teams will have conducted at least 100 stakeholder interviews and developed a “minimally viable product,” MVP, that addresses the needs of their DoD problem sponsor.

For students, D4D represents an unparalleled opportunity to work on real-world national security problems in close collaboration with DoD personnel and agencies. For problem sponsors, involvement in D4D is a force multiplier for their toughest problems. By the end of the course, sponsors will be provided with a MVP that aims to address their needs in addition to receiving significant new, creative, outside thinking on their problem topic.

Check out the Example Problems page on the site to learn more about the types of problems we tackle in the class and what the final solution for our sponsors looks like!