Applied AI in Oral Health Summer Institute
Learn how to turn data into intelligence on July 11 and 12, 2025, with the Mike Petryk School of Dentistry.
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Event details | Schedule | Speakers
Event details
July 11 and 12, 2025, in Edmonton, ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥
Students — $100 | Faculty and Clinicians — $300
Registration deadline: July 2, 2025
We will offer applied and methodological AI training through examples and the application of coding techniques to solve challenges in dental research. This program is designed for interested dental researchers and students with no previous experience in AI who wish to pursue this dimension of research.
Note: Attendees must be members of NCOHR.
* This number is an estimate. Your regulatory body will issue the credits.
Schedule
This conference will offer active learning sessions in the mornings and labs with hands-on, project-based learning in the afternoons.
The learning objectives of this institute are as follows:
- Understanding the fundamentals of artificial intelligence and machine learning as they apply to dentistry
- Experience using AI decision support systems to provide treatment recommendations in dentistry
- Understanding the role of AI in predictive analytics for assessing patient risk factors and treatment outcomes
- Experiencing chart mining techniques by applying natural language processing techniques to tabular data
- Exploring emerging research areas and future trends in AI applications for oral health research
Speakers
More speakers to be announced.
Dr. Fabiana Almeida
Assistant professor, discipline lead of oral and maxillofacial radiology
Dr. Almeida, DDS, OMR, MSc, PhD, is an assistant professor at the Mike Petryk School of Dentistry, ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥. She has dental and oral maxillofacial radiology training. She also completed a master of science (2010) and PhD (2016) in health sciences - oral diagnosis.
Currently, Almeida teaches oral radiology to DDS and DH students and advanced imaging to graduate students the clinical programs. She serves as the discipline lead of oral and maxillofacial radiology and the director of the UG Research Initiative Program. Her research interests include advanced imaging modalities (ultrasound, MRI and CBCT) applied to diagnosis in dentistry, particularly, TMJ and artificial intelligence applied to imaging.
Dr. Nazila Ameli
Academic teaching staff member and orthodontist
Ameli, PhD, is an accomplished orthodontist with over seven years of experience as a faculty professor. She earned her PhD in 2024, focusing on the applications of artificial intelligence in dentistry and oral health.
Since beginning of her doctoral program in 2021, Ameli has published seven peer-reviewed papers specifically in the fields of machine learning and AI in dentistry and am involved in more than seven AI-related projects. Her research bridges both text and image data analysis to advance diagnostic and clinical decision-making in oral health care. Ameli currently serves as an academic teaching staff member at the ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥, where she contributes to both clinical education and research.
In addition, she has served for two consecutive years as the president of the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Student Society (AIMSS), leading initiatives to integrate cutting-edge technologies into healthcare and enhance patient outcomes.
Dr. Maryam Amin
Associate Chair of Research and Director of the Dentistry Graduate Program
Dr. Amin, DMD, MSc, PhD, is a professor and associate chair of research and director of the dentistry graduate program at the ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥. Holding the ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ Dental Association and College clinical dentistry research chair, her research focuses on the social and behavioral aspects of oral health.
She particularly investigates psychosocial, behavioral, community, and societal influences on oral health and dental care access among disadvantaged populations. Her research program also leverages electronic health data and artificial intelligence to identify risk factors leading to adverse oral health outcomes and inequalities, while developing innovative strategies for public health promotion and oral disease prevention.
With over 50 research grants, Amin has produced more than 100 peer-reviewed papers and has supervised 32 graduate students (12 PhD, 20 MSc), 56 undergraduate summer research students, and 8 visiting scholars, presenting her work at various local, national, and international meetings.
Dr. Tahereh Firoozi
Postdoctoral fellow
Dr. Firoozi, PhD, holds the ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ Innovates Postdoctoral Fellowship in the School of Dentistry at the ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥, Canada. Her fellowship is focused on dental analytics and applications of artificial intelligence and large language models (LLMs) to health science research.
Firoozi completed her PhD in the measurement, evaluation, and data science (MEDS) program at the ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥. She also holds a doctoral degree in applied linguistics. Firoozi’s research combines her knowledge in natural language processing (NLP) and applied linguistics with advanced data science methods to solve practical problems in health sciences and education. Currently, she is focusing on leveraging a medical knowledge graph into LLMs for diagnosis prediction.
Dr. Hollis Lai
Professor
Dr. Lai, PhD, MBA, is a professor with the Mike Petryk School of Dentistry and is a university alumnus of the Faculty of Education and the School of Business.
His research interest is in analytics and psychometrics. His team has developed many learning solutions used throughout the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. He co-developed the method for automatic time generation that is now being used by testing agencies around the world.
Dr. Manuel Oscar Lagravère Vich
Director, orthodontic graduate program
Dr. Lagravère, DDS, MSc, PhD, was born in Lima, Peru, where he completed his degree in dental science (2000) and masters in science (2003) at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia.
After this, he moved to Edmonton to pursue a PhD in orthodontic which was completed in July 2009 in the ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥. Since then, Lagravère has moved in the faculty ranks being promoted to tenured-professor in orthodontics since July 2023 where he is involved in teaching orthodontics to undergraduates and postgraduates students.
During his time in teaching and doing research, Lagravère has won several awards and has published over 160 papers in important scientific journals. In July 2025, he will become the director of the orthodontic graduate program at the ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥.
Dr. Camila Pacheco Pereira
Associate Professor, and Oral and maxillofacial radiologist specialist
Dr. Pereira, DDS, MBA, MSc, MS, PHD, FRCDC, is one of the few board-certified oral and maxillofacial radiologists in ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥. She leads the Advanced Imaging Centre at the ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥.
With over 90 peer-reviewed publications, her research focuses on 2D and 3D imaging applications, knowledge translation in dental imaging, and metrics related to patient satisfaction with oral health care. Embracing innovation and collaboration, she explores the use of cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) and alternative imaging tools to advance digital dentistry. Pacheco-Pereira is committed to integrating augmented intelligence into dental imaging, promoting knowledge translation in oral radiology, and advancing education by emphasizing imaging justification and the appropriate use of imaging modalities in dentistry.
