EPIC Challenge Student Showcase Brings Real-World Learnings to Life
August 8, 2025 • By news • 0 Comments
EPIC, a program created by the U.S. Chamber Foundation, connects college and high school students with local employers to solve real-world business challenges. Miami Tech Works, a program funded with a $10 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Good Jobs Challenge, champions this goal.
- EPIC stands for Employer-Provided Innovation Challenges, a program designed to bridge the gap between classroom learning and practical application.
- It was created by the U.S. Chamber Foundation to connect college and high school students with local employers to solve real-world business challenges.
Miami Dade College students collaborated with four startups – Spark Founders, Syneergy, Hakim AI (previously CoCreator) and AllPeeP – to tackle real business problems while building technical and professional skills through project-based learning over the course of five weeks.
| Startup | Project | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Spark Founders | Secure, scalable user management system for its event platform | Students built a system to improve user management and scalability for the company’s event platform. |
| Hakim AI | Website redesign to improve storytelling, usability, and user flow | Students redesigned the company’s website to enhance storytelling, usability, and user flow. |
| Syneergy | Dynamic dashboard to transform raw data into AI-generated insights | Students built a dynamic dashboard to transform raw data into AI-generated insights for the company’s software. |
| AllPeeP | New infrastructure powered by AI to better manage customer reports | Students created new infrastructure powered by AI to improve customer report management for the company. |
“Connecting students with employers to gain real-world experience is at the heart of what Miami Tech Works is all about,” said Terri-Ann Brown, director for Miami Tech Works.
The students worked on various solutions, including infrastructure development, UX, and AI enhancements. They gained hands-on experience across different fields, such as frontend, backend, full stack development, quality assurance, data analytics and management, UX/UI design, software development, web development, business analytics and research, applied and generative AI, and project management. “As an entrepreneur, you have to have different qualities such as flexibility, creativity, self-discipline, and curiosity,” said Michael Mannino, co-founder of Syneergy. “Our student team embraced those qualities, doing meaningful work that produced impactful results.”
“The past five weeks has been a great experience for our company,” said D’Angelo Senat, founder at AllPeeP. “The projects that our EPIC interns have been working on have actually been shipped out to customers, improving the experience for our community members and helping us move at a faster pace.”
The EPIC program aims to bridge the gap between classroom learning and practical application, a goal that Miami Tech Works has been championing since its inception in early 2023.
- EPIC stands for Employer-Provided Innovation Challenges, a program designed to connect college and high school students with local employers to solve real-world business challenges.
- MIAMI TECH WORKS is a program funded with a $10 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Good Jobs Challenge.
Throughout the program, students gained hands-on experience across different fields, skills that they’ll now use in their careers and overall professional growth. “As a data science major, this experience gave me a chance to apply what I learned in the real world,” said Christina Abrahamyan, part of AllPeeP’s student team. “I was able to act as a moderator on AllPeeP’s community platform, engage with the data on the backend to identify trends, and make recommendations on what changes to implement to improve the customer support flow. I couldn’t have gotten this same experience in school alone.”
The EPIC program has supported over 50 employer projects and engaged more than 500 students nationwide, with Miami being one of six pilot cities. “I had a great experience and felt confident in my abilities to contribute and work as part of a team,” said Camilo Cedeno, a student on the Spark Founders’ team. “We were doing meaningful work, while gaining valuable experience and feedback.”
Miami Tech Works has not yet shared details for the next EPIC Challenge program, but interested employers can visit miamitechworks.org to get more information on this program and other opportunities to connect with students, resources, and other businesses. To learn more about the programs and curriculum available at Miami Dade College, visit mdc.edu/MDCTech/ or miamitechworks.org.