Results for MS&E 298

At a time of significant global uncertainty, diplomats are grappling with transnational and cross-cutting challenges that defy easy solution including: the continued pursuit of weapons of mass destruction by states and non-state groups, the outbreak of internal conflict across the Middle East and in parts of Africa, the most significant flow of refugees since World War II, and a changing climate that is beginning to have impacts on both developed and developing countries. While the traditional tools of statecraft remain relevant, policymakers are looking to harness the power of new technologies to rethink how the U.S. government approaches and responds to these and other long-standing challenges. In this class, student teams will take actual foreign policy challenges and learn how to apply lean startup principles, ("mission model canvas," "customer development," and "agile engineering¿) to discover and validate agency and user needs and to continually build iterative prototypes to test whether they understood the problem and solution. Teams take a hands-on approach requiring close engagement with officials in the U.S. State Department and other civilian agencies. Team applications required at the end of shopping period. Limited enrollment.