VOA常速英语:学生帮忙应对美国防务难题

There are more than 100 entrepreneurship classes here at Stanford University.But in the Hacking for Defense class,students learn how to solve problems facing troops and defense agencies throughout the nation.

“They want to work on some of the toughest real world problems they are ever gonna see.With all due respect to Google and Dropbox and Facebook and Twitter,which they all have opportunities here in the valley to go work for as graduates here,these are some problems that make those look trivial by comparison.”

Like these fellow teachers, they launched the 10-week course last year to bring a model for creating start-ups to military defense problems.Now the course is offered at 8 other universities. Student projects include helping soldiers in the field deal with mapping technology,creating sensors to help soldiers with injuries and grappling with cyber security.

“So I’m working for USTRANSCOM,which manages transportation in the United States to better improve cyber security and the country’s sea ports.”Benji Nguyen is a graduate student of public policy, a native of Austin, Texas, Nguyen’s parents are from Vietnam.“Yeah, that’s my growth actually, I have no impressions there.When I’m here, you know, start reading textbook and doing as promised.When I told them I was working with the military to help solve a problem, they were really excited about it actually.”

For U.S. students, the Hacking for Defense class gives them a unique chance to serve their country.They are expected to get out of the classroom and enter the field,learning the day-to-day situations for soldiers or others in national defense.But the class’s also attracted a surprising number of foreign-born students.

“We take the military intelligence problems and we scrub them down, so anybody could work on them.But I was surprised by the number of foreign students from Singapore and China,from India who were just interested in learning that same methodology and could take it home from wherever they are.”

Some students go on to create companies or go work for the agency they met in the class.For some, Buvana Dayanandan they are looking for work that is meaningful.“We’re working on helping veterans that have experienced some polytrauma and figuring out how technology can increase the quality of life and independence for a longer period of time.”

The students in this class learn they have to first understand a problem before coming up with the right solution.It is a set of skills they can use in whatever they do next.

Michelle Quinn, VOA News, at Stanford University in California.