AWS Public Sector Blog

MD5 Hackathon: Using Technology & Data to Help Save Lives

Prepare for everything. That is the guidance that MD5, a public-private partnership between the National Defense University, New York University, and a network of national research universities, is giving its participants for the MD5 Hackathon on February 24 – 26 in Austin, Texas. The three day hackathon brings together over 100 innovators from the Department of Defense (DoD), UT Austin, and the Austin community to tackle some of the toughest Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) challenges. We are looking forward to being the technology provider, working with MD5 to provide access to AWS technologies and mentorship throughout the hackathon. Join us by registering today!

Established in 2015 and based at Fort McNair in Washington, DC, MD5 seeks to reinvigorate civil-military technology collaboration and value creation through the development of a National Security Innovation Corps – entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs solving high tech problems in the interest of national security.

MD5 works to enable communities of innovators, following a model of innovation marked by “a compulsive interest in technically elegant problems, an almost childlike fascination for new things, and, of course, a patriotic commitment to national defense,” outlined by Merritt Roe Smith, MIT professor and technology historian.

MD5’s hackathon is an example of commercializing technology relevant to the nation’s security and prosperity. They are seeking hardware and software concepts that addresses humanitarian assistance and disaster relief challenges in the following areas:

  • Logistics and Planning
  • Communications
  • Water and Power

AWS is committed to enabling innovators and providing solutions to the Department of Defense (DoD) and commercial collaborators for these disaster situations, whether a man-made, natural, or cyber.

For example, what do you do if you cannot get online? What do you do if you have no power? AWS Snowball Edge and AWS Internet of Things (IoT) integrations are able to seamlessly support edge workloads or communicate with other devices securely – even when not connected to the Internet.

We will be on hand at the Hackathon to answer technical questions over the three days and help find ways AWS services can assist in using data to help save lives. Learn more about AWS for Defense.

Register today!