Erik Bushland and Jessica Garcia

Bushland’s and Garcia’s innovative teaching program, “Sachse Emergency Response Simulation,” will allow students to work with the local fire department to create a usable Emergency Response Simulation in Virtual Reality (VR). In a course that combines 3^rd-year animation students with 3^rd-year computer science students, they are working on the first phase of a multi-year project to first create a driving simulation and then expand it to encompass emergency situations the fire (or police) department may encounter such as: traffic accidents, flash flooding, gas leaks, train derailments, and of course, fires. According to Bushland and Garcia, students also present their work at least twice a year to industry, school, city, and fire officials twice a year.