About us

Our mission is to augment students’ academic curriculum with project-based experiential learning in collaboration with industry partners.

Our Values

Connect to Careers

Supplement academic learning with STEM certifications and innovation hubs

Collaboration

Learning thrives in community and cohort settings

Real-World Applications

Experiential learning supplements academic learning to transfer to industry settings

Building the Future Workforce

Problem

Students lack professional skills, industry connections, & project-based learning opportunities in academia.

Solution

Offer students STEM certifications & project-based learning opportunities, solving real-world problems in collaboration with industry partners.

A bad hire costs your business 30% of their first year earnings.

And 94% of senior managers in the U.S. report challenges finding skilled talent in technology.

Hiring “unprofessionally ready” candidates results in

  • Decreased innovation and talent pool

  • Increased hiring and turnover costs

  • Lower employee morale, retention, productivity

  • Worse reputation with clients

Sources: Business.com, Robert Half

Skills-based hiring can lower training & program development costs by 50%

And skills-based hiring is 5x more predictive of job performance than education-based hiring

Hiring “professionally ready” candidates results in

  • Increased innovation and talent pool

  • Decreased hiring and turnover costs

  • Greater employee morale, retention, productivity

  • Better reputation with clients

Sources: McKinsey, McKinsey

STEM Certifications

Cloud
(AWS, Google)

Cloud dominated the list of key digital skills employers say will be most in-demand by 2025.

Source: Gartner

Data Science
(Tableau)

Employment of data scientists is projected to grow 36% from 2021-2031, much faster than the average for all occupations.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Project Management
(PMI)

There will be a global need for 25 million new project professionals by 2030. In the US, individuals certified in PMP from the Project Management Institute earn 32% more.

Source: PMI

Robotic Processing Automation
(UiPath)

48% of businesses around the world plan to increase Robotic Processing Automation adoption.

Source: Forrester Consulting

Customer Relationship Management
(Salesforce)

300,000 - 400,000 open positions in the U.S. for Salesforce administrators, developers, analysts, & consultants

Source: Harvard Business Review

Work Management
(monday.com)

Prior to joining the workforce, students may lack access to work management software that is used to power professional organizations.

Innovation Hubs

How the Epicenter aligns with UCLA’s 3-pillar mission.

Education

Study of design thinking covering business, technology, & interpersonal topics; application of learned skills to define social-impact problems & build solutions in student teams coached by industry professionals

Research

Student capstone teams will complete a business creation option (work with classmates to launch their own business) or the applied management research option (work in a team to address a challenge for a client organization)

Service

Provide students the opportunity to learn new ways to use technology to help address critical problems and opportunities facing the university, its students, and the broader Los Angeles community

In 2017, our Professor Emeritus & Faculty Director Lee Cooper wrote:

“The world faces many complex problems, and great universities should be part of the solution. In the long-term, universities accrue enormous demonstrated societal benefits. But what about today? If we want universities to have an immediate impact, we need to engage today’s students in hands-on projects that confront real problems. That’s the premise of action research. The generic mission of a university action research center is to transform research and education into service to the world. The goal is to organize, prepare, and support students as they attack real-world problems–and to do so on a large scale.”

Jump into an exciting career.