Providing Real-World Experience to Madison Media Institute Students

Madison Media Institute has been training individuals for careers in the media arts since 1969. One of the several programs offered is Game Art and Animation designed to give the skills, hands-on technical training, practical business skills and support to pursue a rewarding, creative career in the exciting digital animation field. The TOPS Lab has forged a synergistic relationship with Madison Media Institute to provide real world experience to their Game Art and Animation students. Currently, four students are working on various projects with at the UW Driving Simulator Lab. Two students are creating high resolution assets with low polygon count that do not adversely affect the simulator performance. Two other students are creating a driving engine that would enable UW to create our own portable driving simulator that can use the same scenario files that are used in the full scale driving simulator. These would enable us to provide a more realistic view of signing and pavement markings in the driving simulator while at the same time providing invaluable real-world experience to MMI students. This experience could also encourage MMI graduates to consider careers related to Transportation which they might not have otherwise done.