Instructor
Erik Sander
The Michael Durham Executive Director
esander@ufl.edu
Class Period
Monday Periods 3-4
Spring 2026 Syllabus
Registration
Departmentally Controlled and by Application Below Only
The UF Engineering Innovation Institute, in partnership with the US National Security Innovation Network, is offering a course that brings together multidisciplinary upper-division undergraduate and graduate students. The course leverages the most cutting-edge entrepreneurship education model to attack critical Department of Defense (DoD) and US Intelligence Community (IC) problems in real-time.
Innovating for Defense (EGN4932/EGN6933; Monday Periods 3-4) challenges student teams to engage with DoD sponsors and government contractors to fully understand a mission-critical problem through 50-100 stakeholder interviews over the semester. Student teams learn and use the Lean Startup methodology and the Mission Model Canvas to iteratively cut through the complexity of the problem, craft a business model and solution to meet the DoD/IC Mission Need and develop a prototype.
The course will be intense, and students should be prepared to dedicate 10-15 hours weekly outside class time.
The DoD sponsors this national program, which was initially developed at Stanford University. Over 2,000 students from 55 universities have evaluated 450 DoD / IC real-time problems. Sponsors report that over half the student team solutions are impactful or implemented in some fashion (see Success Stories), including 53 startup companies resulting from projects.
A student does not have to be a US citizen, and DoD problems are not Classified. No previous knowledge of the DoD structure is necessary, as this will be a crucial element of the student learning in this course.
For Spring 2026, teams comprising 4-5 students will work on curated projects, each with a DoD project champion and manager with the students who will regularly engage.
Student learning will include the following:
- Learn and exercise the most cutting-edge entrepreneurship model (Lean Launchpad / iCorps) that Silicon Valley, Stanford University, NSF, DoD, and many others have championed.
- Attack DoD/IC-defined, mission-critical problems in securing our nation’s Defense today.
- Develop interaction and presentation skills with DoD/IC and civilian defense contractor decision-makers through weekly interviews of key stakeholders at multiple tiers in the command chain.
- Formally present critical workflow and outcomes weekly, culminating in a final presentation of the student journey and proposed solutions to an audience of DoD/IC and other stakeholders.
Spring 2026 Projects
- Innovation in the Field / US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DevCom) Challenge: The Operational Army and Joint Forces need methods to create innovative solutions via Advanced Manufacturing Technologies to address soldiers who are constantly on the move having ill equipped resources for in the field capabilities, and who instead need secure, reliable, and rugged equipment that might be 3D printed in the field that will meet requirements and operational needs of Warfighters.
- Boosting Battlefield Blood Supply / US Army HQ (The Pentagon) Challenge: Soldiers and military medical teams need a reliable, sustainable blood supply during combat operations where hospitals and transportation are not available to provide life-saving treatments.
- All Home Grown / US Air Force 628th Airbase Wing Challenge: Security Forces need a way to access or produce low-cost, National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) compliant drones to support testing, training, and expendable use cases—without relying on expensive or restricted systems.
- Operational Visualization / US Special Operations Command Challenge: Operational Planners for the SOCOM Information Operations Directorate need a way to automate data collection and analysis of the information environment to rapidly assess, understand, and make decisions regarding the cognitive/human domain (e.g., the effectiveness of how US military actions affect audiences in a given geographic or socially connected area)
- JTAC Mission Support / Aeronix Corporation Challenge: Drones are increasingly pivotal to sensing-to-shooter loops, but remain only partially and unevenly integrated into theater Command and Control architectures because tactical networks, coalition enclaves, and high-classification sources are separated by policy, accreditation, and technical guards. This poses challenges for forward-position Joint Terminal Attack Controllers, who direct the actions of military aircraft engaged in close air support and other offensive air operations.
Application
Contacts
Students can email the course instructor, Professor Sander, at esander@ufl.edu with a copy and any questions to Ms. Lori DeLuco at ldeluco@ufl.edu.