At Miami Dade College, innovation isn’t something students just read about – it’s something they do. When Professor Milagros Sanoja set out to teach her Innovation Management course, she wanted her students to experience the real process, not a classroom simulation. So she built a challenge around an urgent, real-world problem: helping US supermarket chain Publix explore new ways to reduce non-sustainable packaging.
Instead of brainstorming on paper or pitching ideas in isolation, students used the Qmarkets platform – the same innovation software used by hundreds of leading global enterprises every day. They visited Publix stores, interviewed managers, submitted ideas through the platform, refined them together, and ultimately formed teams to pitch directly to Publix leaders.
The result was an innovation hackathon that benefitted everyone involved. Students learned how innovation actually happens in the real world. Publix gained fresh perspectives on a major sustainability challenge. And MDC proved what more colleges and universities urgently need to recognize: when students use real innovation tools to solve real industry problems, everyone benefits.
How Professor Sanoja Brought the Challenge to Life
Professor Milagros Sanoja brought more than two decades of industry experience into this project, having held senior roles at multinational tech companies before moving into academia. That background shaped her teaching philosophy: students learn best by doing, using real tools and real methods rather than relying on theory alone.
Recognizing that Qmarkets offered the kind of structured, collaborative workflow she had seen in corporate innovation teams, she chose to integrate the platform into her course. Paired with a real sustainability challenge at Publix, it gave her students the chance to apply innovation management in a way that felt relevant, challenging, and true to the expectations of the professional world.
How the Challenge Worked
To bring the project to life, Professor Sanoja partnered with Steve Reed, Director of Innovation Solutions at Qmarkets, to set up a dedicated innovation environment for the class – a fully branded, ready-to-use workspace inside the platform. This gave students a professional experience from the start. When they logged in, they were entering the kind of platform real organizations use to run ideation challenges and manage innovation pipelines.
Research and Field Discovery
The first step for students was to understand the problem from the ground up. They carried out field research by visiting Publix stores across Miami-Dade, speaking with managers about packaging practices, and observing sustainability challenges firsthand. They documented what they found, compared insights, and explored how companies around the world tackle similar issues.
This early investigation gave students a grounded understanding of the opportunity, ensuring the ideas they later submitted were informed by real customer behavior and operational realities.
Idea Generation on the Qmarkets Platform
Once students had gathered their research, they entered the ideation phase using the Qmarkets platform. Each student submitted their own concept, reviewed the ideas of their peers, and began strengthening and refining their approaches through open feedback and discussion.
Because all ideas were visible in one place, the platform helped students think collaboratively and transparently, mirroring the way corporate innovation programs build on shared knowledge rather than siloed thinking.
Team Formation and Strategy Development
Students then formed teams around the ideas with the strongest potential. Each team developed a structured proposal that included:
- a refined, research-backed solution
- projected costs
- an implementation roadmap
- potential partners and resources
- scalability considerations
- a risk assessment
- and a clear classification of the innovation type
This was where their classroom learning met practical application. Students were no longer simply suggesting ideas; they were building business cases.
Final Pitch to Publix and MDC Leadership
The challenge concluded with a formal pitch session. Each team presented its solution to a panel comprising representatives from Publix and Miami Dade College as well as Steve Reed from Qmarkets, outlining both the idea and the path to implementation.
For students, this was a standout moment – an opportunity to communicate their thinking, respond to questions, and gain feedback from real professionals. For Publix, it offered a glimpse into how emerging talent approaches sustainability, providing fresh perspectives shaped by structured analysis and collaborative problem-solving.
Examples of the Students’ Proposals
The students produced a range of thoughtful, research-backed concepts, each developed into a full proposal complete with costs, timelines, risks, and implementation considerations.
Two examples included:
- Green Points – a simple rewards concept that would incentivize customers to return recyclable packaging through the Publix app.
- Refresh & Return – a reusable aluminum bottle system for Publix-branded beverages, supported by a detailed roadmap covering design, cleaning infrastructure, piloting, and scale-up.
The Refresh & Return proposal, in particular, captured the attention of the Publix representative during the final pitch session – largely because the students had anticipated key operational questions and presented a credible, well-researched pathway for how it could work in practice.
What these examples really demonstrate is the power of putting students in a real innovation workflow: learning how to shape ideas into viable, structured proposals the way companies expect in the real world.
Key Takeaways: What Made the Initiative Impactful for Everyone Involved
This project worked so well because it delivered value on multiple levels. Students gained real experience, Miami Dade College strengthened its academic offering, and Publix benefited from fresh, research-driven perspectives on a complex sustainability challenge. The result was an initiative that felt authentic, energizing, and genuinely useful for everyone who took part.
For Students
- Hands-on experience with a real sustainability challenge, grounded in field research and direct observation.
- Practical exposure to real-world innovation frameworks and tools through the Qmarkets platform.
- Skill-building in communication and confidence by pitching their proposals to external decision-makers.
For Miami Dade College
- A high-impact learning model that brought sustainability and innovation pedagogy to life in a tangible, motivating way.
- A stronger industry relationship with Publix, reinforcing MDC’s role as a connector between students and the world of work.
For Publix
- Insight into how emerging talent and future consumers think about sustainability and packaging challenges.
- Exposure to thoughtful, early-stage ideas shaped through a structured innovation process – offering new angles to consider in their long-term sustainability journey.
Together, these benefits highlight how powerful it can be when academic programs adopt the same innovation methods and tools used in the real world, creating a learning environment that supports students, enriches institutions, and provides meaningful value to industry partners.
Recognition Beyond the Classroom
The impact of this initiative didn’t end with the final pitch. The quality of the work, the structure of the challenge, and the way the class integrated real-world innovation practices drew attention beyond Miami Dade College. As a result, Professor Milagros Sanoja has been invited to present the project at the 2026 Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy, hosted by Virginia Tech.
Her presentation will showcase the full learning journey, from field research, to ideation in Qmarkets, to the final proposals delivered to Publix. It’s a strong endorsement of the approach she designed: a modern, industry-connected model for teaching innovation management that resonates with both academic and professional audiences.
This recognition also highlights something important for higher education more broadly: the demand for practical, applied, innovation-focused learning is growing, and institutions that adopt these methods are quickly standing out.
A Model for Scalable Academic–Industry Innovation
Miami Dade College’s initiative proved to be a true win-win. Students gained hands-on innovation experience and built confidence through structured collaboration and pitching. MDC strengthened its academic offering and demonstrated the power of experiential learning. Publix, in turn, had the opportunity to hear the students’ research-informed proposals during the final pitch session.
It showed what’s possible when academia and industry meet in the middle. Institutions should be pushing for these kinds of applied learning experiences – and companies should be pulling for them. Innovation is a skillset students need now, and a bridge that can bring educators, learners, and enterprises together around shared problems and shared value.
Ready to bring real tools, real partners, and real challenges into your classrooms? Reach out to us and find out how Qmarkets can help your institution run high-impact innovation initiatives for your students.
