One of many largest pupil tech organizations within the nation is killing it at FIU. The college’s chapter of the nationwide Upsilon Pi Epsilon honor society has 800+ members and hosts the most important hackathon in Florida.
ShellHacks yearly attracts greater than 1,000 college students (beforehand in individual, presently hybrid) from Florida and past and rounds up dozens of Fortune 500 firm sponsors — together with Microsoft, Google, Fb and Oracle — in addition to established and burgeoning native tech companies. Members work in teams to develop progressive options to real-world issues, study concerning the newest advances, community with business representatives and extra.
In 2020, UPE launched a brand new hackathon on the request of FIU’s management. PantherHacks was born to give attention to options across the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We actually develop packages to supply experiential studying alternatives the place college students can bridge their training with their profession and break into the tech business,” says UPE president Nicholas Gonzalez, a pc science main who has interned at Fb and NASA’s Kennedy Area Heart.
The subsequent era of tech leaders gathered at FIU MMC throughout Shellhacks in 2019.
Gonzalez says UPE performs a pivotal position in making ready college students to contribute to the new Miami tech scene round which native business and metropolis leaders have converged. “We have now the expertise pipeline out there,” he says of what he sees amongst his high-achieving friends.
The group additionally sponsors workshops to deepen college students’ expertise in areas akin to utility growth and {hardware} engineering, and conducts outreach at native excessive faculties, significantly in underserved communities, to spark curiosity among the many subsequent era.
“FIU’s mission of actually offering college students with studying and management alternatives and placing college students first,” Gonzalez says, “that’s actually what units FIU aside.”
