The Art Institute of Houston Animation Students Help University of Texas Dental Students Get Animated

Senior animation students from The Art Institute of Houston, under instructor Jonathan Nelson, are creating two animated simulations to help second- and third-year dental students at The University of Texas Dental Branch at Houston.

The collaborative learning and teaching project was led by Kamal F. Busaidy, D.D.S., associate professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery and Arthur H. Jeske, Ph.D., DMD, professor in the Department of Restorative Dentistry at the UT Dental Branch. The two dentists provided all the technical information and helped guide the students in providing accurate depictions of how to do an injection of local anesthesia and how to extract a tooth. The culmination of the 11-week course will be a final presentation to the UT Dental Branch at 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 17, at The Art Institute of Houston.

The 20 students are part of a Team Production class that meets weekly to focus on a real-world project. The goal is for the students to work together as part of a team in order to produce an animation. Past projects have included working with NASA and the Sci-Fi Network.

“Never has the inside of the mouth been so interesting and exciting to the students,” explains instructor Jonathan Nelson. “Unlike other projects that are more conceptual in nature, and because these animations were being used as a teaching tool, we had to be absolutely technically correct in our depictions. Accuracy was paramount.”

"This collaboration represents the increasing emphasis on using new teaching technologies, particularly simulation, at the UT Dental Branch," says Jeske, associate dean for strategic planning at the UT Dental Branch. "The students and faculty at The Art Institute of Houston have taken important clinical dental concepts into a user-friendly, familiar realm for our students, with professional results that have exceeded our expectations. We look forward to future collaborative projects with The Art Institute."

The students’ current work can be monitored on http://www.aihanimation.com.

The Art Institute of Houston is one of The Art Institutes (www.artinstitutes.edu), a system of over 40 education institutions located throughout North America, providing an important source of design, media arts, fashion and culinary professionals.