Hacking for Defense (H4D) Meet Team OmniComm
Creating Autonomous Multi-Network SatCom
In honor of Hacking for Defense’s 10 year anniversary, we are highlighting more about our student teams - highlighting this spring’s cohorts. In our last blog, we introduced Team Hydra Strike and its quest to “Sink Smarter, Not Harder,” which re-envisioned maritime security for the 21st century. Now, in this second installment of our spring Hacking for Defense (H4D) series, we shine the spotlight on Team OmniComm—one of eight driven student teams tackling some of the nation’s toughest security challenges at Stanford this term.
Partnering with the US Army, Team OmniComm is re-imagining battlefield connectivity and creating “Resilient and Flexible Satellite Communications as a Strategic Imperative.” Their mission: create a software-defined, multi-network solution that can hop seamlessly among multiple transport layers, including Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO), Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), and Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations to deliver jam-resistant, low-latency command-and-control to dispersed forces — even when adversaries target legacy, single-vendor ground stations or sever lone under-sea cables.
Meet Team OmniComm:
Facundo Booman, PhD: Facundo blends deep-tech research with manufacturing know-how. After earning his physics PhD at École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, he taught university courses, designed experiments sent to the ISS as a post-doc at Portland State University, and now investigates turbulence and aerodynamics at Stanford. His expertise in experimental physics and engineering informs OmniComm’s vision for reconfigurable satellite-ground hardware.
Charlie Gordon: Charlie has written guidance-navigation-control algorithms for the Falcon 9 team at SpaceX, built low-latency trading models as a quantitative-strategist intern at Eisler Capital, and led multiple launch campaigns with the Stanford Student Space Initiative. He has also integrated and tested 3-D-printed rocket avionics at Relativity Space and worked on kinetic-launch systems at SpinLaunch. His knack for real-time, high-reliability software now drives OmniComm’s software-defined routing logic.
Althea Hudson: Althea has shipped network-security tooling at Check Point Software, built data pipelines at Emerson Collective, and worked on machine-learning projects in the Stanford AI Lab. She served as vice-president of the Stanford Quantum Computing Association, and has theoretical physics and dark matter research experience at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics & Cosmology.C. At OmniComm she spearheads the anti-jam signal-processing, encryption, and cyber-resilience stack.
Samuel Montagut: Samuel cut his teeth designing turbomachinery and structures as a mechanical-engineering intern at launch-vehicle maker Astra, then stepped into life-support operations as a NASA ETHOS flight-controller intern. He has researched magnetized plasma diagnostics at the Stanford Plasma Physics Lab, served as an Autodesk ambassador for advanced CAD/CAM, and prototyped clean-energy devices for the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. His hands-on experience with rugged hardware and deployable structures is now focused on compact, rapidly set-up RF terminals.
Andrew Paulmeno: A former Marine Corps combat-engineer officer, Andrew has since moved into defense-tech strategy. He served as chief product officer for Project Maven in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security, led AI engagements at the DoD’s Joint AI Center, crafted M&A strategy for Voyager Space, and drove revenue and operations at construction-tech startup Trunk Tools. Most recently he worked ground-segment strategy at earth-observation company Muon Space. Andrew holds a B.S. in Ocean Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy (minor in Russian), an M.S. in Construction Engineering & Management from Columbia, and an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business; at Stanford he translates operator pain points into commercially viable product roadmaps.
Luke Virsik: Twice a GNC engineering intern at SpaceX, most recently on Falcon, Luke has also served as GNC lead for Stanford SSI’s Falcon Heavy replica project, co-led structures for Project Olympus, and guided Project Spaceshot toward a student-built sub-orbital launch. A stint at Northrop Grumman gave him experience in thermal analysis, while research at Stanford’s Space Rendezvous Lab deepened his GNCchops. Luke specializes in fault-tolerant flight software and mesh-network routing designed to survive electronic warfare.
Together these six students span product strategy, RF hardware, adaptive materials, aerospace flight software, cyber-secure networking, and operational insight—everything needed to rethink resilient satellite communications.
Seven weeks in, OmniComm has conducted 124 interviews with special forces operators, network systems engineers, acquisitions officers, EW specialists, and commercial-solutions providers. The feedback shows:
Single-network connections = single point of failure. Units need connectivity that works across multiple networks on demand.
Legacy hardware can’t keep pace. As new solutions are fielded, they have to be integrated into modern networks.
Bandwidth is the new ammo. Cloud-based fires planning, ISR feeds, and kill-chain data demand high throughput and low latency.
EW is ubiquitous. Creating low-probability-of-detection and low-probability-of-intercept modes must be built-in, not bolt-on.
Acquisition speed is a blocker. Authorities to Operate prevent commercial solutions from becoming programs-of-record, even when commercial standards are higher than government requirements.
The Pacific theater proves the point. Island garrisons with a single fiber link need over-the-horizon diversity—or they go dark.
Those insights validated the team’s core hypothesis: “Software-defined, multi-network connections that autonomously route traffic across commercial and military networks will deliver the resilient, anti-jam connectivity distributed Army units need to win in a contested environment.”
See Team OmniComm 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. The Hacking for Defense® Manual by Jeff Decker, PhD, the textbook used in the H4D course, is available on Amazon.