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- [Wherlyn] LEGOs are a beloved past time for children of all ages.
The connecting plastic blocks transform into buildings, creatures,
or feats of engineering genius in the hands of creative minds.
A group of students at Miami Dade College, Wolfson Campus found a different purpose
for these simple, plastic blocks.
- [Jeremiah] This is LEGO305. It's more of an experience actually.
I wouldn't call it just a project.
- The master builders have been recreating the city of downtown Miami using
only LEGOs, starting first with the Wolfson Campus and eventually the
surrounding buildings. But the construction is only phase 1
of the project.
- [Arthur] In phase 2, we're going to work on implementing
augmented and virtual reality into these buildings. That's why they're all
white blocks.
- [Kiana] So let's say the New World building that I'm building,
they would project a huge banner that says New World School of the Arts,
and you would see it there. In my opinion, the biggest way that this can help
is traffic, but if you look at it from the top and you see how many cars are
congesting the roads, I feel like it'll help so that's what
makes me the happiest.
- The project was started at The Idea Center by MDC's Professor in Residence
for Innovation, Ramiro Almeida. LEGO305 brought together students
from across disciplines each bringing a unique perspective to the project.
- [Sabrina] It just really requires a bunch of teamwork. I mean figuring
out the scale, like the perimeter measuring, it all requires teamwork.
- Sometimes there's moments where you have four people trying to decide,
"Do we want to make that window one LEGO higher or one LEGO lower?"
and I think it's almost necessary to have those different opinions,
because some people are focused on the symmetry, some people are focused
on detail, some people are focused on proportion, and I think those different
views on what we do on what should be in the final model kind of helps us create,
like, the best one possible.
- A project of this scale certainly requires a lot of planning,
but Professor Almeida intentionally provided the students
with zero instructions.
- We're given no guidelines, no rules, no I guess has-to-follow.
He literally told us, "Create the Freedom Tower out of LEGOs."
And, like we said, those open-ended questions kind of, like,
shocked us at first. But as we kind of found our way through,
like, a lot of trial and error, a lot of messing up,
it kind of built itself in a way.
- Basically, he taught us to think in different ways that just are unorthodox,
I guess, and just cool to think about.
- Forcing the students to think outside the box, allowed them to be innovative,
finding creative solutions to the problems they faced.
- Like one building, like, we were halfway in the whole building,
and I leaned on it a little bit, and the whole building collapsed,
which was the courthouse.
- The problem is that it's hollow inside, so what they did was they filled it
with newspapers. And, in anyone else's head, it would have been,
like, "Oh, okay. Well, we did this, and it's wrong so let's start again."
And they were like, "Let's think of a creative and innovative way to fix
the problem," and that's really what innovation is. A lot of people think that
innovation is, like, the next big iPhone and the next gadget.
An innovation is really just fixing day-to-day problems.
How can you fix a problem? And if you can do it in a successful way,
then that's innovation.
- LEGO305 was on display at Maker Faire Miami, a festival of innovation,
creativity, and resourcefulness for all ages. Hosted by the MDC Wolfson Campus
in downtown Miami, guests were able to witness the first phase of LEGO305 or join
the fun themselves.
- Everyone walks in and their eyes just, like, glow up, and that's so
super rewarding.
- The students are continuing to make progress on the LEGO305 project while
starting a preliminary work on phase 2. But these aren't the only students working
on unique projects thanks to Professor Almeida. Don't go anywhere because we will
have more next. For MDC In Focus, I'm Wherlyn Best.