The Cushman School — Upper School

Willie Avendano

STEAM Educator & Hacker

Miami, Florida

Teaching across all five STEAM disciplines — Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics — at The Cushman School in Miami.

About

Bio

Willie Avendano

Willie Avendano is a STEAM educator at The Cushman School in Miami, teaching across all five STEAM disciplines — Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics. He also helps run the school's Upper School mini maker space, where students prototype, fabricate, and experiment outside the bounds of any single course.

He brings an unusually broad background to the classroom: a degree from Columbia University in Operations Research and Computer Science, years building real tools at the intersection of technology and art, and a career co-founding and directing 01—a Miami education lab dedicated to fostering agency and creative confidence in young people through emerging technologies.

His interests span virtual reality, machine learning, genetic algorithms in design, and the history and philosophy of mathematics. Before teaching, his work was shown at the ICA Miami, HistoryMiami Museum, Satellite Art Show, and Locust Projects, and he spoke at Miami Beach Urban Studios and the Deering Estate.

His courses tie rigorous academic content to real engineering practice—students build, program, simulate, and ship actual projects.

GitHub LinkedIn CreativeMornings Email

Cushman School

Courses

Current & Upcoming — 2026–2027

AP · Mathematics

AP Statistics

College Board AP course covering data collection, probability, statistical inference, and regression. Students explore real datasets and build skills in R and Python.

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PLTW · Engineering

Engineering Fundamentals

An introduction to the engineering design process, problem-solving frameworks, and hands-on prototyping. Students build physical and digital solutions to open-ended challenges. (PLTW Engineering Essentials)

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PLTW · Engineering

Introduction to Engineering Design

Students apply the design process to model and prototype solutions using 3D modeling software (Autodesk Fusion 360), learning documentation, iteration, and technical drawing.

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PLTW · Engineering

Principles of Engineering

A project-based survey of mechanical, civil, and electrical engineering systems. Covers statics, energy, materials, and control systems through hands-on lab work.

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Science

Introductory Physics

An algebra-based first course in physics — motion, forces, energy, momentum, waves, and electricity — built through hands-on labs and real-world problem-solving. Some trigonometry appears where it's useful, but it isn't a focus. Standard (non-honors) track.

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Computer Science

Computer Science Math

Applied mathematics through computation—students write programs that explore statistics, forecasting, simulation, and algorithmic thinking. Projects range from lemonade stand simulations to stock price models.

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Co-Taught

AP Capstone

AP Research

Students design and conduct independent research culminating in a 4,000–5,000 word academic paper and oral defense. Willie co-teaches, supporting students whose work involves quantitative methods, data science, and computational approaches to complex questions.

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Previously Taught

Before Cushman

Background

01 — Miami Education Lab

Willie co-founded and served as Executive Director of 01, a Miami-based education lab built around one idea: young people learn best when they have real agency over what they build.

01 ran immersive maker programs—including the Wynwood Maker Camp—that introduced students to computer programming, fabrication, virtual reality, and emerging technologies at a time when those tools were still rare in K–12 settings. The lab's work was recognized with the 2018 Wavemaker Grant.

Columbia University

Willie studied at Columbia University in New York City, earning a degree in Operations Research and Computer Science—a field that sits at the intersection of applied mathematics, statistics, and algorithmic decision-making.

That foundation informs how he teaches today: rigorous quantitative thinking grounded in real systems, not abstraction for its own sake.

Art & Technology

His creative practice explored the edge between computation and art. Work was exhibited at the ICA Miami, HistoryMiami Museum, Satellite Art Show, and Locust Projects. He has spoken at Miami Beach Urban Studios and the Deering Estate.

He was also active in early explorations of VR, generative systems, and cryptographic art—a thread that now runs through his CS and engineering courses.

Research & Open Source

Willie has published demos and tools exploring machine learning, Kalman filters, virtual reality simulations, and political NLP. Several of these projects live in his GitHub repositories and have been used in classroom contexts.

The intersection of quantitative rigor, creative practice, and engineering systems defines the thread running through all of his work—in and out of the classroom.

Talks & Presentations

Public Work

2019

CreativeMornings Miami

Ampersand Studios, Arts & Entertainment District — Miami, FL

A talk on creative technology, education, and building spaces where young people develop agency through emerging tools. Hosted by CreativeMornings, the global breakfast lecture series for the creative community.

2018

Wavemaker Grant — Experiment .001: FocusCoin & CryptoSymphonics

01 / LCHN Project Group — Miami, FL

Grant recipient for an experimental project combining blockchain mechanics with participatory music systems. Part of an ongoing exploration of cryptographic art and decentralized structures in creative practice.

2017–

Miami Beach Urban Studios & Deering Estate

Miami, FL

Invited speaker at public programming events exploring technology, design, and education in Miami's creative and civic institutions.

2015

ICA Miami — Open Call: Web-Based Art

Institute of Contemporary Art Miami — Miami, FL

Selected participant in ICA Miami's open call for web-based art practice, alongside exhibition appearances at HistoryMiami, Satellite Art Show, and Locust Projects.

GitHub

Selected Projects

qlass — Open-Source LMS

A self-hostable, open-source learning management system inspired by Google Classroom. Built with Next.js 14, PostgreSQL, Prisma, and NextAuth.

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Design District Pop-Up Forecasting Model

Demand forecasting model built with students in Computer Science Math. Predicts foot traffic and revenue for a pop-up shop in Miami's Design District.

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Stock Price Forecaster

Browser-based forecasting tool using LSTM, GBM Monte Carlo, and Decision Tree models — all running client-side via TensorFlow.js. Developed in the context of AP Research.

View on GitHub

Political Polarity NLP

NLP pipeline measuring political polarity in text corpora using TF-IDF, logistic regression, and fine-tuned DistilBERT. Developed in the context of AP Research.

View on GitHub

Lemonade Stand Simulation

An economic simulation used in Computer Science Math to explore pricing models, demand curves, and optimization under uncertainty.

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ML Kalman Filter Demo

Demonstration of Kalman filtering applied to machine learning systems. An early research tool from Willie's work in applied probabilistic methods.

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01 VR Demo

A virtual reality demo built during the early days of 01, exploring immersive environments as a medium for student learning and creative expression.

View on GitHub