With the Iraq war in its fifth year, technological developments have been key to American military strategy. But while many engineering undergraduates and graduate students express a distaste for direct involvement in weapons design, development of technologies with joint civilian and military applications seems much more palatable.

According to Electrical Engineering graduate student Siddhartha Kasivajhula, the overlap in civilian and military technology is staggering enough that many engineering students cannot effectively draw the line.

“For example, I could be involved with a project involved with the design of more efficient solar panels for satellites,” Kasivajhula said, “but weapons guidance satellites will ultimately end up using solar cell technology used by commercial satellites. Technology in one context can easily translate to another.”

Stanford engineering undergraduates, especially those involved in research, highlighted how the defense industry allows commercial technology to flourish because of its funding. While some were opposed to participating directly in weapons design, they noted that commercial technologies often started out as a military technology.

“You never know when military research will become mainstream,” said Mechanical Engineering student Sunthar Premakumar ‘08. “The Internet started out as some army project, and look at how important it is now.”

Other undergraduates were more focused on the importance of defense funding at the University level. Students like John Laxson ‘10, an undeclared undergraduate thinking about majoring in Materials Science and Engineering, noted that war has historically accelerated the pace of technological development.

“I don’t see anybody avoiding it,” Laxson said. “Wars have a long history of promoting innovation in technological fields. In that sense they are very well-funded, and often in a position to make improvements in our lives.”

Others like Mechanical Engineering student Lewis Hom ‘10 noted that Stanford is heavily supported by funding from defense-related projects for the government, and that many labs would be severely hindered without such funding.

“In the lab I am working in, some things are actually funded by the Department of Defense,” Hom said, “but generally, I enjoy that my research focus has attention and generally don’t think of them as being ethically bad.”

Hom said that the good attributes of defense research may outweigh the potentially negative attributes. He cited the DARPA challenge as a project entirely funded by the military that could ultimately go toward the development of self-navigating vehicles.

Though many students pursue research projects supported by the Department of Defense, the war has not enhanced student interest in defense. Several Stanford professors found themselves unable to see any particular trends in students pursuing defense-related jobs or internships.

“Unfortunately this is something that I know nothing about,” said Electrical Engineering Assistant Professor Shanhui Fan. “None of my graduated students went into defense industry.”