In Stanford class, using tech to aid State Department

The Syrian refugee crisis hits close to home for Stanford graduate student Anton Apostolatos. His father fled communist Romania. Apostolatos doesn’t feel he can return to turmoil-stricken Venezuela, where he was born and raised.

“Every day I’m looking for opportunities and looking for signs of life so I can go back and do my part to build a country that’s in shambles,” Apostolatos said, referring to Venezuela.

Meanwhile, Apostolatos is working with other Stanford students and the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration to improve data on missing or dead Syrian refugees. It’s part of a Stanford University class, Hacking for Diplomacy, in which about 30 students work with various State Department units to help solve global problems with technology.

The projects include lowering the spread of violent extremism online, assessing peacekeeping units’ effectiveness and even avoiding space collisions by tracking objects in orbit.

Stanford entrepreneurship adjunct Professor Steve Blank designed the class. Students create business models and flow charts and work toward potential solutions.

They also learn to navigate the bureaucracy at the State Department — no small task.

“Technology as a tool could really help move the needle on a lot of the big global challenges,” Zvika Krieger, the State Department’s first representative to Silicon Valley, said in an interview before Thursday’s class. “That isn’t (the State Department’s) strong part. We don’t have a lot of people who have coding and developing skills.”

Besides Blank and Krieger, the class’ handful of instructors include Jeremy Weinstein, a political science professor who worked on security issues in the State Department and the White House under President Obama, and retired U.S. Army Special Forces Col. Joe Felter.

Blank created a Hacking for Defense class this spring, in which small teams of students worked with Department of Defense groups on military issues like defending against drone attacks.

Half of the groups continue to work on their projects with funding from the Department of Defense.

“The primary benefit for us is getting actual products that come out of the class,” said Krieger, who had emailed the State Department to explore interest in a Hacking for Diplomacy class and received 30 project submissions from bureaus interested in sponsoring a team. “The secondary benefit is inspiring the next generation of students who are going to be the real leaders.”

Assistant Secretary of State Anne Richard attended last week’s class. She oversees population, refugee and migration issues, and her bureau sponsors the two teams in the class who are working on refugee problems.

“The problems are hard and the solutions illusive,” Richard said. “If they came up with a new technique that was adopted by international organizations, that would be marvelous.”