Hacking for Defense (H4D) Meet Team Hydra Strike

Good-enough systems, produced quickly at scale, will determine the outcome of future maritime conflicts

It’s been almost 10 incredible years since the first Hacking for Defense® (H4D) course got its start at Stanford University. Founded by Steve Blank, Joe Felter and Pete Newell, the course pairs Silicon Valley’s lean-startup mindset with real-world national-security problems from the Department of Defense and other agencies. What began as one class has grown to 70 universities worldwide, creating 70+ startups, hundreds of jobs and raised millions – with even a few unicorns. As Stanford’s spring quarter unfolds, we are highlighting some of this year’s cohorts that make up eight impressive teams of motivated, enthusiastic critical thinking students who are poised to tackle some of our nation’s most complex national security challenges. Throughout the spring term, we will showcase some of the teams, their backgrounds, and the problem they are tackling. First up is Team Hydra Strike.

Poised with a problem from the U.S. Navy of “Sink Smarter, Not Harder,” Team Hydra Strike is charged with helping the Navy re-envision maritime security for the 21st century. This conceptual problem has the team thinking beyond the history of torpedoes designed during the Cold War period.

Meet Team Hydra Strike: Five team members make up Team Hydra Strike, which was named after the many-headed serpent or monster in Greek mythology that was slain by Hercules — when each head was cut off, it was replaced by two others. Team members include:

Andrew Couillard: Andrew is focused on Team Hydra Strike’s product and strategy. Prior to attending Stanford, Couillard spent eight years diffusing bombs for the Navy, leading teams across Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia with joint special operations teams. He spearheaded AI/ML initiatives in the Navy's undersea drone portfolio. Experienced in Mandarin and Chinese manufacturing lines, Andrew bridges operator pain points, international supply chains, and venture-backed innovation to the team. He also recently participated in a national-security hackathon, where his team Dark Vessel Labs placed in the top six.

Breno Casciello: Breno is focused on engineering and design. With past experience researching in Stanford’s Hypersonics, Propulsion and Energy i Lab, Breno has developed a self-operating hydrofoil surfboard, as well as engineered rocket hardware in the Stanford Space Initiative. He is well-versed at translating lightweight-structures into torpedo design that could cut drag and extend range.

Gabriel Noya: Gabriel pairs electrical-engineering studies with hands-on silicon experience to focus those areas on the electrical engineering and computer science areas of Hydra Strike. From experience with NVIDIA’s robotics group, plus AI work at BTG Pactual, Gabriel has worked on chip design, machine learning optimization and physics simulations. As a former startup tech lead, he is well-versed at combining AI performance with hardware products.

Seth Rhodes: Seth is a mechanical-engineering student who brings design expertise to the H4D challenge. His experience building and testing preliminary air data systems for one of the first commercial eVTOLs while working at Joby Aviation, as well as being the founder of SR Technologies and disaster-relief nonprofit Light Up Puerto Rico, bring a compelling combination of design, aerodynamics and community together.

Alex Wang: Alex is the computer science lead who brings electrical engineering capabilities to the team. Alex developed autonomous RL algorithms for CV enabled real-time detection and precision targeting in complex environments. He combines AI depth and financial rigor. A current CS master’s candidate (AI/ML), he has written reinforcement-learning code for noisy sensor data, built ML pipelines at Alkymi, and analyzed tech investments for Silver Lake. His algorithms help provide Hydra Strike with a brain.

Together the Hydra Strike team covers mechanical design, autonomy, edge electronics, supply-chain savvy, and operational insight.

Six weeks in and Hydra Strike has conducted 64 interviews with submarine officers, acquisition leaders and industrial-base experts. The feedback shows:

• Over-Reliance on Submarines: The U.S.Navy faces a critical shortage of anti-ship capabilities, particularly in the Indo-Pacific theater with an adversary that has a 1:350 ship building capacity. This shortage places an enormous burden on the submarine force, which is constrained by limited magazine depth and challenging resupply logistics.

• Not all high end features are needed for all missions. Heavyweight torpedoes have become too advanced for simpler surface missions.

• Modularity and production scale beat peak performance. Volume and speed to field are now strategic differentiators.

• Stand-off, low-signature effects matter. Submarine tube space is scarce; weapons must be compact, smart and survivable. Submarine operators want optionality without sacrificing hard or mission kill effects.,

• Open architectures break vendor lock-in. Digital engineering and additive manufacturing can widen the industrial base and cut timelines.

Those insights validated the team’s core hypothesis: “Good-enough systems, produced quickly at scale, will determine the outcome of future maritime conflicts.”

See Team Hydra Strike and the seven other H4D teams present live at Stanford on Tuesday, June 3, at 5:15 p.m. (PT). You can attend in-person at Stanford University or watch via livestream. RSVP to reserve your spot and get the virtual livestream details HERE.

The Hacking for Defense (H4D) program has been taught at 70 colleges and universities around the world and has created 72 startups that have generated 660 jobs and raised more than $350 million. To learn more about the H4D course at Stanford University visit h4d.stanford.edu; to learn more about H4D around the world visit h4d.us. To learn more about The Hacking for Defense® Manual by Jeff Decker, PhD, visit Amazon.