MDC gears up students for the future by opening new innovative hub with robot to help increase AI education

A ribbon-cutting ceremony took place at Miami-Dade College’s Kendall Campus to open a new artificial intelligence innovation hub.

The South Florida college is helping gear up future students with the new complex, and featured a dancing robot at the ceremony.

“We are opening our AI Innovation Hub; this is gonna be the center for innovation for Miami-Dade County, where we are looking to infuse businesses with AI-driven products,” said Dr. Ernesto Lee, assistant professor at MDC.

The college’s new hub is designed to train South Florida’s future technology workforce.

“What we’re doing is we are looking at how AI can move the needle for Miami businesses,” said Lee. “So, we are looking at how we can define workflows, how AI can be integrated into workflows, and how it can be integrated into robots.”

MDC is considered a national leader in AI education, with more than 4,000 students receiving AI training through the school’s programs.

“We are looking at how we can add value, from a revenue perspective, from an efficiency perspective, just so we can make sure Miami is not part of the innovation but is driving in innovation,” he said.

College professors emphasized the importance of AI, all in the name of progress.

“We are in the middle of a transformation. It’s just like electricity, electricity impacted everybody, it removed some jobs, it transformed every job, it created brand new jobs, we have the exact same thing happening right now with artificial intelligence,” said Lee.

MDC launched Florida’s first bachelor’s degree in applied artificial intelligence in 2024 and is now expanding partnerships with companies including Intel, Google, Microsoft, and International Business Machines.