Microsoft Innovation Center Grand Opening Miami

On December 9th in downtown Miami, Microsoft and the City of Miami celebrated the grand opening of the first ever US based Microsoft Innovation Center (MIC).  As a local Microsoftee, I have been involved in the planning and execution for the MIC over the past several months, so to be there in person for the grand opening was both satisfying and eye opening in several ways.  Before I get into further details of my experience, let me take a second to explain what exactly the MIC is. 

In short, the MIC is open to students, software developers, academic faculty, and startups for collaboration and skill.  That’s the stock definition… a  little vague, I know.  So what does this really mean?  It means that Miami is tired of losing development and startup talent to San Francisco.  It means that Microsoft and the community are passionate about providing opportunities for students, startups, etc. that strive for the next level of training and nurturing.  It means that if you want to better yourself in the technology realm, we want to help.  We strive to have the MIC be a go to resource for any person looking for more, whether it be workshops, trainings, open discussions and brainstorming, etc. 

On a personal note, I seek provide opportunities for students that did not exist for me, or at least that i was aware of.  I wasn’t aware of a Microsoft employee willing to have 1:1 time with me when I was in high school, university, etc.  I didn’t have a series of workshops that I could attend to learn how to make mobile applications and develop websites led by an industry professional.  I must have missed those flyers.  I mainly had class and my spare time.  More opportunities came at the university level, but in high school, I hadn’t even dreamed of programming.  In fact, I didn't even know what it was.  Just think.  If I can start to pass on everything that I know to students earlier and earlier, imagine the possibilities that the students that pass through the MIC can have.  Imagine how far ahead of me they already are or will be soon.  I mean, how cool would it be to look at a successful startup years down the road and say “I helped them get started.”?  I’m not looking to see a monetary return on the time that I put in; it’s not about the money.  Just to be able to say that I made a difference is enough.  That’s a concrete example of what the MIC means to me and what I hope to achieve from being involved!

Furthermore, one of the eye opening things that I came to realize at the Grand Opening was that this effort is much bigger than just Microsoft.  I went in thinking of how big of an event this was for us as Microsoft.  How much work we had put in… how much time.  It didn’t take long to see that the entire City of Miami was and has been behind the project well before I got involved.  On hearing each of the speeches, I came to realize how many hours were given from a wide variety of people and how they are equally as excited and passionate as Microsoft is.  For reference, take a look at the speakers list below.

• Dr. Susan Amat – CEO Venture Hive
• Marc Sarnoff – City of Miami Commissioner
• Angel Petisco - CIO Miami-Dade County
• Dr. Sylvia Diaz, Asst. Superintendent Miami Dade Schools
• Larry Orecklin, VP USDX

In addition to the speeches and tours given, I was able to run two Hour of Code sessions for 50 middle school students from Palm Beach County.  Hour of Code is an international initiative to teach students about the importance of coding.  Although you may not notice or think about it on a day to day basis, technology surrounds us, and behind all of that technology is someone who wrote code for it to function.  That said, Computer Science has quickly become one of the most lucrative majors and careers due to the immense amount of job opportunities there are.  Because of this, I worked with students in building a mobile game where they were able to change lines of code that altered gameplay, touching on physics, math, logical conditions, etc.  All of these concepts come into play with computer science, but I was able to introduce it to them in an interesting and exciting way.  So much so that, by the end of the workshop, the students had there heads down exploring their creativity, and none of them seemed eager to leave!  All in all, introducing these students to computer science can potentially lead to more opportunities for them down the road.  I got to be a part of that!