ASEE PEER - Using AI Chatbots to Produce Engineering Spreadsheets in an Advanced Structural Steel Design Course
Asee peer logo

Using AI Chatbots to Produce Engineering Spreadsheets in an Advanced Structural Steel Design Course

Download Paper |

Conference

2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Portland, Oregon

Publication Date

June 23, 2024

Start Date

June 23, 2024

End Date

July 12, 2024

Conference Session

Architectural Engineering Division (ARCHE) Technical Session 2

Tagged Division

Architectural Engineering Division (ARCHE)

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/48223

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Alexander Campbell Oklahoma State University

visit author page

Alex Campbell, P.E. is a licensed Professional Engineer and an Assistant Professor of Architectural Engineering at Oklahoma State University. Alex practiced as a structural engineer before transitioning to teach at his Alma Mater where he received his Bachelor of Architectural Engineering (BAE) and Master of Science in Civil Engineering (MS) degrees. In practice Alex specialized in structural steel connection design and brings his experience into the classroom.

visit author page

Download Paper |

Abstract

Engineers have historically embraced the use of technology to increase efficiency, reduce errors in calculations, and produce high quality projects on a shorter timeline. The Excel spreadsheet is a prime example of how engineers embraced technology for those reasons. Excel has been a staple in producing an immeasurable number of engineering calculations. However, humans have always been responsible for spreadsheet development and, unfortunately, humans will inherently produce errors within spreadsheets. But what if an engineer can reduce the number of errors and produce a spreadsheet in less time by utilizing artificial intelligence (AI)?

This paper will discuss incorporating the use of AI Chatbots, such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, into an advanced steel design course. The course is centered around a semester long project where Architectural Engineering students design and analyze a multi-story steel structure. Students throughout the semester will use AI Chatbots to create spreadsheets by asking it to develop VBA code that can then be inserted into Excel spreadsheets. The resulting spreadsheet will be compared to hand-calculations and RISA output to determine the accuracy of the VBA code and error reduction produced by AI Chatbots.

Campbell, A. (2024, June), Using AI Chatbots to Produce Engineering Spreadsheets in an Advanced Structural Steel Design Course Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/48223

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2024 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015