Inside NDIA’s Defense Hackathon: How Collaboration, Learning, and Rapid Problem Solving Come Together

About this episode

The episode discusses the effectiveness of NDIA's hackathon model in the defense innovation ecosystem.

Hackathons are becoming an increasingly important tool in the defense innovation ecosystem. When designed intentionally, hackathons can work for everyone involved in defense innovation. In this episode of Emerging Tech Horizons, Dr. Arun Seraphin is joined by Nick Lanham, Chair of NDIA’s Data Analytics and Enterprise Platforms Division and Senior Data & AI Analyst at Kairos, and Charles Ott, Vice President and Solution Strategist at Maximus, to discuss NDIA’s hackathon model and what makes it effective. The conversation offers a practical look at how this hackathon works: bringing together technologists, industry leaders, and government users for a focused, time‑boxed effort to tackle real defense problems. Rather than operating as a competition or a coding exercise, the hackathon is designed as a collaborative learning environment—one where participants share knowledge, test ideas, and better understand both user needs and institutional constraints. Lanham and Ott explain why this approach benefits everyone involved. Across the board, participants leave with a clearer picture of the problem space and stronger connections across the defense innovation community. The episode…

People in this episode

Host: Dr. Arun Seraphin

Guests: Nick Lanham, Charles Ott

Topics covered

• defense innovation
• hackathons
• collaboration
• problem solving
• data analytics

Keywords

• hackathon
• defense
• innovation
• collaboration
• learning
• technology
• problem solving

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: NDIA, Kairos, Maximus

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