capabilities. Critics argue that AI, while impressivein specific applications, may not fundamentally transform society to the degree its proponentssuggest. These discussions are essential in grounding expectations and ensuring that thedeployment of AI aligns with ethical and sustainable practices [4].Recent developments, such as OpenAI’s innovations with GPT-4.5 (O1) and GPT-5 (O3), havereignited these debates. OpenAI’s blog posts on O1 and O3 reveal breakthroughs in efficiencyand multimodal learning, further advancing the capabilities of AI systems. These modelsdemonstrate enhanced performance in generating human-like text, image recognition, andproblem-solving. Their release has intensified discussions around the responsible integration ofAI into
engineering program. Wehypothesized that engaging students with real, integrated engineering content in the first years ofthe program would help them build an engineering professional identity (EPI) and improvestudent retention and success. Two new project-based courses for 1st and 2nd year students in theenvironmental engineering program were developed and offered for the first time during the2023 – 2024 academic year. The two courses integrated content on sustainability,professionalism, systems thinking, ethics, and social justice topics, with technical content onengineering design and tools. Surveys were given to the environmental engineering studentsenrolled in these new 3-credit courses, along with two cohorts of 1st year students in a 1
Laboratory CourseAbstractIn the fall of 2025, Mechanical Engineering and Library faculty at California State University,Maritime Academy will develop and pilot Artificial Intelligence (AI) literacy learning outcomeswithin Mechanical Engineering and Physics courses. The university currently does not haveinstitution-wide AI literacy learning outcomes or systematic support for AI instruction. Inpreparation, the faculty will collaborate to create an AI literacy framework for courses in whichstudents carry out quantitative experimentation. Instructional and assessment materials designedto teach students about the uses, ethical implications, and limitations of AI throughout thetechnical paper writing process will be created. Students will practice and
!), and dove into Telecom Engineering. Once in Telecom, my learning continued at MCI, Vartec, and Charter. ©American Society for Engineering Education, 2025 WIP: Fostering Professional Skills Development Through Application in Core Engineering Subject Courses: A Pathway to Holistic Student Development Surupa Shaw, Randy Brooks Texas A&M UniversityABSTRACTTechnical expertise alone is insufficient for career success in the evolving and competitive field ofengineering. Employers increasingly prioritize graduates who possess key professional skills suchas collaboration, communication, problem-solving, and ethical
engineeringsolutions, aligned with the SDGs and NAE Grand Challenges, contribute to sustainability. Thereport also underscores the importance of cultivating global citizenship through education, whichUNESCO identifies as crucial for achieving sustainable development goals.Addressing the urgent need for a strategic approach to globalize education without additionalresources, the report emphasizes leveraging creativity and the growing diversity of the studentbody. It details how increased international student enrollment in the U.S. enriches educationalenvironments and supports global citizenship.Furthermore, the report discusses the essential values for future engineers, including empathy,ethics, and cultural awareness, proposing strategies for integrating
synthesize information. These students learned how to thinkcritically about the questions they need to ask to lead them to the answer they needed [5].Additionally, AI tools can be used to check answers and equations to provide a deeperunderstanding on complex engineering topics [6].The integration of AI in engineering education also presents challenges. Students may developand overreliance on AI tools and AI may negatively impact academic integrity [7]. Furthermore,concerns surrounding the ethical implications of AI include issues of bias, privacy, and inabilityto validate AI-generated information highlight the need for comprehensive training on theresponsible use of AI [8][5]. Educators must consider these challenges to ensure that AI tools
pivotal moment inAI adoption driving rapid transformation across many fields. For higher education, the newtechnological wave demands a reevaluation of traditional teaching and learning models to remainapplicable in an AI-driven world [2]. Higher education institutions now face a monumental taskof embracing AI literacy as a core competency, akin to such fundamental competencies ascritical thinking and effective communication. However, integrating AI into higher educationpresents several challenges, including the lack of standardized guidelines for curricularintegration and established governance structures, ethical and safety concerns, facultypreparedness, quality and reliability of outputs, and the potential of increasing the digital divideand
provides student agency inintellectual development, and (4) it provides content adaptability to emerging trends. 3For example, our first-year Chemical Engineering graduate curriculum comprises five courses:Thermodynamics, Kinetics and Reactor Design, Transport Phenomena, Mathematical Methods, and Safetyand Ethics (taught in one course together). Although this curriculum is reasonably standard in ChemicalEngineering graduate education, its structure leaves little room for customization, specialization, andflexibility on emerging topics. In contrast, one-credit modules enable students to adapt to their priorknowledge level - for example, by testing
. ©American Society for Engineering Education, 2025 Critical Thinking (Mis)conceptions of First-Year Engineering StudentsAbstractCritical thinking, an essential skill for engineers, is a cornerstone of effective problem-solving,ethical decision-making, and innovative design. Despite its recognized importance, research onhow early undergraduate engineering students perceive and understand critical thinking islimited. This study explores first-year engineering students' conceptualizations of criticalthinking at a large Hispanic-Serving Institution with Very High Research Activity. Using anopen-ended question embedded in a classroom assessment, this qualitative study analyzesstudents' definitions of critical thinking through thematic analysis
Paper ID #45603BOARD # 437: Research in the Formation of Engineers: Prompting SociallyEngaged Divergent Thinking in Engineering Design by Leveraging GenerativeAIDr. Justin L Hess, Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE) Dr. Justin L Hess is an associate professor in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. Dr. Hess received his PhD in engineering education and his BS/MS in Civil Engineering, all from Purdue University. Dr. Hess’s research interests include understanding how empathy manifests in engineering and engineering education; advancing the state of the art of engineering ethics education; and promoting
“to advance the human condition and thus serve society” [1]. Engineers are in ourevery day lives from the homes we live in, the technology we use daily and the healthcare weengage in. The National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) has developed a code ofethics for engineers to follow. As part of the code of ethics, NSPE Code of Ethics, afundamental canon is to “hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public [2].” Inorder to satisfy or abide by this canon, I propose that engineering students must be civicallyengaged and as such it should be embedded into the engineering curriculum.Civic Engagement in Engineering“Civic Engagement involves working to make a difference in the civic life of one’s communityand developing the
Paper ID #45824Generative AI in Engineering: Tool or Trouble?Dr. Claire Lynne McCullough PE, High Point University Dr. McCullough received her bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Vanderbilt, Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Tennessee, respectively, and is a registered professional engineer in the state of Alabama. She is currently Professor and Founding Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering at High Point University, and teaches courses in such areas as Engineering Ethics, Controls, and Engineering Design. Dr. McCullough has over 30 years’ experience in
conflate sociotechnical engineering education with ethics education.Others have challenged the nature of sociotechnical learning activities, such as service-learningand community-based design projects, for their tendency to fail to engage with the ways powerdynamics shape interactions between faculty, students, and community members [8-12]. Thesecritiques elevate the need for clarity around defining sociotechnical design education.Other criticisms have come from local, state, and national legislative actors who have advancedefforts to curtail or ban the teaching of the “divisive issues” in primary, secondary, andpostsecondary education [13-14]. However, the form and function of these legislative attacksdiffers across sociopolitical contexts in the
platforms that produce text, images, and media based on prompts,known as Generative AI (GenAI). At the same time, researchers in industry, government, andacademia recognize a need for responsible governance of AIs. They question how to regulatepowerful AIs being developed at the frontier of computing. Engineers play an important,informative role in this process, offering valuable technical and design knowledge topolicymakers, including concerns about risks and ethical applications. This summary identifiedresearch papers, governance documents, and industry approaches to responsible AI policy designwithin the U.S. It provides an overview of the voices at the heart of designing AI policy anddemonstrates the challenge of responsibly regulating emergent
solutions with empathic and ethical consideration forcommunities/societies, environmental justice, and cultural awareness.These outcomes are addressed in a 3-week project assigned in the class. Students are asked torecommend whether a condensing furnace run on natural gas or a heat pump should replace anold natural gas furnace in a private home. While some may find this to have an obviousengineering solution, the answer is not straightforward when considering the broader effects. Theidea is to increase system boundaries beyond the design objects to include the environment,society, and culture. Students are expected to analyze options by performing technicalcalculations in specific societal and cultural contexts, use appropriate engineering codes
competence, Undergraduate, Critical reflection,Communication 1. Background Perspective-taking, referred to as the cognitive ability to consider and interpret situations from another’s point of view [1], is a critical skill for fostering collaboration and communication inacademic, professional, and social settings [2]. It enables individuals to interpret the actions andintentions of others, thereby enhancing communication across cultural and interpersonaldifferences [3]. Hess et al. [4] emphasize that perspective-taking is a foundational component ofempathy, crucial for ethical reasoning, effective conflict resolution, and interculturalcommunication. As higher education increasingly prepares students for a globalized workforce[5], [6], the
over adopting AI tool use in their curriculum. Per the framework,components contributing to a sense of agency include past experiences, expectations of thefuture, and present cultural, structural, and material conditions that can be opportunities, barriers,and resources [1].At the onset of the project, our team theorized several factors which might impact teacher’s AIuse based on Biesta et al.’s framework, including social supports or hindrances from otherteachers or administrators, school and community resources and access to use AI tools,perceptions of added value of AI tools on teaching outcomes, opinions and ethical concernsabout AI tools, and familiarity with AI tools from prior personal or professional use.Ecological Systems TheoryBiesta
engineering education [2], [3]. Despite thewidespread use of GenAI tools, they are still relatively new in engineering education. Thisintroduces uncertainties, including issues regarding ethics, accessibility, and algorithmic bias [2],[4]. There are also concerns around the lag between the rapidly growing uses of GenAI tools andthe current policies regarding their uses in engineering education [5], [6].In addition to ChatGPT, there have been other GenAI and large language model (LLMs) basedtools, with widespread uses for students, educators, and researchers in engineering education [2],[3]. This has created opportunities for innovation within engineering education along withchallenges of using them in learning environments [3]. Due to the recent
engineering suggest thatstudents should be cognizant of and prepared to act upon these issues concerningmacroethics—the social responsibility of the engineering profession [1]. For example, ABETStudent Outcome 2 notes that students must develop an understanding of engineering designincluding “consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social,environmental, and economic factors.” [2]. Additionally, the American Institute for Aeronauticsand Astronautics’ Code of Ethics says that engineers are expected to “hold paramount the safety,health, and welfare of the public in the performance of their duties” [3]. These statements leavegreat latitude to the curriculum and the instructor in interpreting who counts as the
. IntroductionGenerative AI (GenAI) is reshaping education, challenging educators to reconsider what theyteach, how they teach, and how they engage and assess student learning in the classroom. Asstudents are already using these tools in their academic work at a higher rate than we expect [1],taking a proactive and forward-thinking approach to integrating GenAI into engineeringeducation is becoming increasingly important. Such an approach will not only equip studentswith the ability to critically evaluate AI-generated outputs but also encourage them to explore itslimitations and ethical and professional implications.In this case study, the authors explore the integration of two GenAI-based writing assignmentsinto a senior-level design course. The goals of this
focuses on human-computer interaction, human-AI interaction, and social and collaborative computing. Since 2023, Dr. Smith has been continuously involved in efforts to assess and understand student adoption of Generative AI (GenAI) across campus. She participated in writing institution-wide policies for Mines, and she has given numerous guest lectures and organized numerous workshops on the ethics and use of GenAI in engineering education. ©American Society for Engineering Education, 2025 Assessing Student Adoption of Generative Artificial Intelligence across Engineering Education from 2023 to 2024AbstractGenerative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools and models have the
Measurement Laboratory MIME 209 [3] Mathematical Applications Group D. 9-12 credits from: COMP 445 [3] Computational Linguistics COMP 550 [3] Natural Language Processing COMP 579 [4] Reinforcement Learning ECSE 415 [3] Introduction to Computer Vision ECSE 446 [3] Realistic Image Synthesis ECSE 507 [3] Optimization and Optimal Control ECSE 526 [3] Artificial Intelligence ECSE 544 [4] Computational Photography ECSE 552 [4] Deep Learning ECSE 557 [3] Introduction to Ethics of Intelligent Systems MECH 559 [3] Engineering Systems Optimization Or any 400 or 500 level special topics courses in the area of artificial intelligence with the
Paper ID #46757Educating for DEI in Construction Engineering: Translating Findings onDisability Considerations on Worksites into Pedagogy and Course ContentProf. Sarah Jayne Hitt, New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering Dr. Sarah Jayne Hitt is the Lead for Transferable Skills at the Centre for Advanced Timber Technology and Founding Professor of Liberal Studies at the New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering in Hereford, UK. She specializes in curriculum development as well as integrating ethics, sustainability, and communication into engineering education, and serves as project manager for the Engineering
, civil engineering students need both technical competencies andprofessional skills, such as the ability to communicate clearly, social aptitude,business acumen, ethical awareness, and an openness to others’ perspectives andideas. As courses focused on technical content leave little room to spare, muchdevelopment of such professional skills is outside the capacity of the traditionalcurriculum.A teaching technique to enhance student engagement and learning was attemptedin civil engineering courses at Mississippi State University periodically through aperiod of several years. The activity is called Ten Questions (10Q). In 10Q, studentsinterviewed professionals who work in a civil engineering field most relevant to thecourse subject. Students made
. Additionally, each design team defends the design solution in a public oral presentation,showcase the final product to general public, and complete the final design report. Students alsoFigure 3: Design phases and activities undertaken in each design phaseundertake several individual assignments related to ethics and impact of design solutions onsociety.According to Eggert [5] a product design evolves over time in design phases. This evolvement ofcapstone design at the SAU is illustrated in figure 3.Formulation (of the design problem) is important because the successful design solution dependson the sound formulation of the design problem [5]. Gathering information on customerrequirements, company requirements, identifying bench mark products
will be analyzed using thematic analysis, following Braun and Clarke’s framework:(1) familiarization, (2) coding, (3) theme generation, (4) theme review, (5) themedefinition, and (6) reporting. Codes focus on critical thinking (e.g., analysis, evaluation,synthesis), decision-making, and AI use. NVivo software supports coding and themedevelopment. Critical thinking is measured by identifying instances of analysis (e.g.,breaking down design constraints), evaluation (e.g., comparing alternatives), andsynthesis (e.g., integrating AI insights with manual analysis) in journals and interviews.Comparisons to traditional methods are grounded in decision-based design principles.4.5 Ethical ConsiderationsThe study is IRB-approved, with informed consent
. This presented anopportunity to redesign the course to strengthen students’ design thinking skills by integratingpractical, real-life applications of BME. The redesign aims to create a transformative learningexperience that equips students with the skills and perspectives necessary to excel in a rapidlyevolving field. By prioritizing authentic engagement with real-world problems, the course seeksto inspire creative solutions that are ethical, user-centered, and sustainable, preparing students tomake meaningful contributions to the future of biomedical engineering. Assessment of theimpact of the redesigned course will involve a mixed-method analysis, incorporating pre/postsurveys, course artifacts (e.g. weekly deliverables ranging from
ethical considerations, scientific writing andpresentation development, human subject and animal research ethics, and graduate and medical schoolcareer guidance. Additionally, students participated in campus-wide social events including tours of campusand Northwest Arkansas, a game night at Arvest Ballpark, “Dinner and Dialogue” seminars and other eventsdesigned to bolster students’ sense of belonging and camaraderie.Large majorities of the students (5-6 out of the 7) reported Large or Very Large gains in acquiring newlaboratory skills, preparing a scientific poster, and understanding what day-to-day research is like.Additionally, large majorities of >5 students reported they were somewhat or very likely to pursue anadvanced graduate degree
learning experiences through curriculum and course design. Her primary teaching objective is to foster a lifelong learning mindset in her students by promoting critical thinking and problem-based learning. Dr. AbdelGawad’s teaching philosophy integrates real-life ethical dilemmas to encourage students to think deeply, challenge their opinions, and integrate ethics into their coursework to help shape them into successful, professional and socially responsible engineers. ©American Society for Engineering Education, 2025 Engineering Excellence through Strategic Team Management Shell Eco-Marathon STRATEGIES
critical exercises where students compare different platforms to determine suitabilityfor specific tasks, promoting a discussion on data ethics, privacy, and academic honesty. Topromote further implications for practice, the study showcases opportunities for reflection, bothas individual users and in groups through using Socratic Dialogue, as faculty and students testthe limitations of different platforms and address the ethics of using GenAI in a world thatincreasingly blurs the lines pertaining to Cyberethics.Keywords: Generative AI, Pedagogical Innovation, AI Usability Spectrum, Bloom’s RevisedTaxonomy, CyberethicsBackgroundWhen ChatGPT was released on November 30, 2022, it amassed a historic one million users inits first five days [1], with