By Krysten Brenlla and Johannes Quiles
The power of AI is growing, and it’s starting right here in the 305. Miami Dade College students showed off their skills at the Wolfson Campus’ first AI Student Showcase on Thursday, May 1, and the talent was impressive.
Sixteen student teams presented their creative artificial intelligence projects to a crowd of over 100 educators, community leaders, tech enthusiasts, venture capitalists, angel investors, recruiters, and more, showcasing work that spanned a wide range of industries: finance, blockchain, hospitality, fashion, mindfulness, cybersecurity, healthcare, education, public works, law, and energy.
“The AI Student Showcase is a bold reminder that the future isn’t something we wait for, it’s something we build,” Pedro Santos Acosta, executive director of emerging technologies at Miami Dade College, told Refresh Miami in an email. “Students at MDC aren’t just learning about artificial intelligence. They’re using it to reimagine industries, solve real-world problems, and shape a smarter, more innovative tomorrow.”
Hosted by the AI Center at MDC Wolfson Campus and MDC’s School of Engineering & Technology, with sponsorship by Miami Tech Works, the sixteen student teams were comprised of the over 200 students that enrolled in MDC’s AI program this past semester. Throughout the curriculum, students gained hands-on experience in coding and programming to develop AI and machine learning models, which led to an exciting showcase of projects designed to solve real-world problems.
“These projects demonstrate a clear evolution in how MDC students engage with artificial intelligence, embracing it as a powerful instrument for inquiry, creativity, and real-world problem solving. Each solution emerges from a real-world need, grounded in both technical skill and thoughtful analysis,” Acosta said. “The AI showcase marks a pivotal moment where MDC students begin to move beyond the classroom, applying AI to shape systems, solve problems, and contribute to the public good.”
Miami Dade College had a great time showing off their projects, too. From a roaming pet robot to AI-powered nutrition plans, the enthusiasm was shining bright across the room.
Behind each student project was a story and a drive to make a difference. Let’s meet a couple of them:
“With my team, we created a project called Sentiment Analysis for Southern Glazers Wine N Spirits,” Dorra said. “My background is actually in art, but I decided to change into AI because I really like the intersection of art and AI.”
When Southern Glazers Wine N Spirits was looking for a tool to help them analyze trends based on their brands’ sentiments, they knew they could count on the students from MDC’s Applied Artificial Intelligence program. Through a class with MDC professor Beth Muturi, Dorra and her team produced a program that uses AI as a sentiment analysis of brand mentions from social media posts.
“MDC has been a very helpful organization, not only from the point of learning all of this material through classes, but also helping me with networking and learning – not only from the class itself, but from my peers and people who are accompanying me on this journey,” Dorra said. “More than anything, I love that they are always providing opportunities to students – I’m very grateful to MDC.”
- Diana Gomez, computer programming student at MDC
“I just completed my associate’s in computer programming here at MDC, and I’d love to register for the AI program because it’s been very useful throughout my time at MDC,” Gomez said. “The program provides you with so many tools that I could integrate into the vision that I have for my app.”
Her app, called HealBites, is an AI-powered nutrition platform designed for those managing chronic conditions, like diabetes, hypertension, and kidney disease. The program uses AI to combine clinical guidelines with personal recommendations, providing a structured weekly meal plan, a nutritional breakdown for each meal, a shopping list, and step-by-step recipes with a goal to bridge the gap between medical care and nutrition by helping users develop and cook healthy and tasty meals for their medical needs.
“Every single class that I took led to this – they teach you how to actually think about a system that you would like to build, and make it in an organized way. The community and connections that you make here, at MDC, are invigorating. MDC is really generating those spaces for everyone.”
- Alberto Ravelo, adjunct professor at MDC
Ravelo, an adjunct professor at MDC, is creating a new fashion application – AI’s Fashion Revolution: Stitching the Future, that blends AI, 3D modeling, and digital fabrication to reimagine apparel creation.
“Hold on, because you’re totally going to faint – by trade, I am a nuclear physicist,” Ravelo said. “I have a master’s degree in nuclear physics and biostatistics, but I started in fashion 23 years ago. I started working at MDC in 2015 at the Miami Fashion Institute – it has been my lab and home since I started, and with this new AI program at MDC, fashion and science makes sense.”
The Miami Fashion Institute is an industry-driven program that prepares students to work in the fashion industry, learning hands-on skills from professionals in the industry while blending fashion design and technology. Ravelo, an adjunct professor at the Miami Fashion Institute with an extensive tech background, has a goal to train students’ imagination and understanding to translate designers’ drawings into real-life dimensions.
The app he’s developing aims to help fashion designers bring their ideas to life faster – streamlining the design-to-production process, reducing time-to-market, eliminating inefficiencies in apparel creation, improving cost-effectiveness, and making the entire apparel creation cycle more sustainable.
“MDC opened the door for me, and I started showing my experience in the industry,” Ravelo said. “At the same time, I’ve been growing so much because teaching is very rewarding. Every generation and student is a new beginning.”
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Refresh Miami is a proud Miami Tech Works partner.
Krysten Brenlla is the Media Relations Specialist for Jackson Health System, where she manages media relations for the health system’s cardiology, neurosurgery, rehabilitation, and Miami Transplant Institute service lines. Prior to her role at Jackson, Krysten worked at Florida International University as an Account Manager for FIU’s Office of Engagement. In 2022, Krysten obtained her master’s degree in Global Strategic Communication from FIU.
