Miami Dade College students Uyen Hoang, Minh Nguyen, Ai Linh Lai, Santiago Padron and Jean-Pierre Neira-Pinzón won the state finals of the second annual Blackstone LaunchPad Florida Innovation Challenge on Oct. 17 at the University of Central Florida Downtown Campus.
The first-place team won $6,000.
“It is really easy to push forward and go beyond when you are surrounded by people who are willing to give it their all too,” said Neira-Pinzón, a student at Eduardo J. Padrón Campus.
The College competed with several Florida universities, including the University of Florida, University of Central Florida, Florida International University and Florida State University.
This year’s challenge consisted of creating and developing a business plan to engage the Orlando Magic of the National Basketball Association’s fanbase through content, experiences and products.
Each institution held local competitions to select their teams. The Idea Center hosted MDC’s qualifiers on Sept. 26 at Wolfson Campus. More than 50 MDC students participated.
“This was sort of a redemption story, the team that won this year actually won second place last year at the local level,” said Anabella Sardinas, program manager at the Idea Center. “They came back this year to win… I can’t even express how proud I am of the evolution that I saw.”
