Impact

• Enrichment. Provide enrichment to West Point required programs by enabling the development of entrepreneurship, disruption, and innovation thinking and skills that help graduate the world’s best leaders of character. 
• Intellectual Capital. Return intellectual capital to the U.S. Army, particularly Army Futures Command, by solving problems of national significance.
• Illumination. Produce and share insights to military and civilian audiences about leader development, character development, and innovation/entrepreneurship.
• Connection. Connect, engage, and activate West Point faculty, staff, and alumni passionate about innovation and entrepreneurship.

The STEDI Project has three major functions:

1. Educate. Enhance the West Point curriculum by supporting the West Point Leadership Center lines of effort to maximize cadet and partner intellectual and professional development (Character & Leadership, Diversity & Inclusion, Innovation & Entrepreneurship, and Leadership & Leader Development Research and Sharing).
2. Solve. Provide the Army with an intellectual resource to solve problems at the intersection of service, entrepreneurship, disruption, and innovation.
3. Share. Provide resources to enhance leader development and character development at other institutions and organizations that teach entrepreneurship, disruption, and innovation.

Hacking For Defense (H4D)

H4D enables cadets to learn about innovation by doing it – cadets are exposed to the lived experience of navigating conflicting data, rapid problem solving, and proposing and adjusting solution concepts.

The Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership and the West Point Leadership Center executed the H4D course from 1-22 July. H4D is a national innovation program & graduate curriculum offered at Columbia, Stanford, Duke, Georgetown and Johns Hopkins and uses Lean Launchpad, Agile Engineering, and the Business Model Canvas methodologies tackle the most pressing U.S. defense problems at entrepreneurial start-up speed. 

Hacking For Defense 2020 Team Projects:

• Increasing officer diversity
• Reaching the Rising Market (increasing youth propensity to serve)
• Communication and command & control in mega-cities
• Telemedicine for soldiers and civilians at the tactical forward edge
• Nonlethal drone applications
• Biometric & health monitoring for front line leaders

About the STEDI logo

The helmet and sword of Pallas Athena signify wisdom and learning and is borrowed from the USMA Coat of Arms. The “steady” flame represents the constant role that entrepreneurship, disruption, and innovation play in sparking individual insight and igniting organizational change.  The three different colored flames represent entrepreneurship, disruption, and innovation; as well as the three functions of the STEDI Project: Educate, Solve, Share.