EAGER: Impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) on Engineering Education Practices

人工智能（AI）的进步正在影响工程专业的几乎所有方面。生成式人工智能（GAI）的最新发展，以及Grammarly、ChatGPT、GitHub CoPilot等技术的流行，正在改变工程师沟通、设计、编码和教学的方式，创造效率和潜在的新机会，特别是对于那些被边缘化的人来说，GAI技术可以降低他们的障碍。鉴于这些技术对工程专业的潜在影响，工程教育者必须意识到GAI，并能够有效地将其用于教学和工程教育研究。该项目将探索GAI技术对工程研究和教学社区的影响，同时开发和评估支持在研究和教学实践中采用和整合这些技术的方法和资源。通过这一点，该项目将支持未来工程师的形成和劳动力的发展。此外，考虑到GAI的使用也引起了需要解决的新的伦理挑战，本工作还将评估工程教育工作者如何负责任地使用GAI。无论是在研究中，数据分析和写作，创意产生，还是在教学中，规划课程或练习。通过帮助工程教育界以最佳方式接受GAI，该项目将允许不同的利益相关者利用GAI。这个项目的研究成果将被教育工作者用来改善工程教育研究和教学，对培养当前和未来的工程师产生更广泛的影响。通过文献回顾和在线数据收集与分析的结合，该项目将确定工程教育研究和教学如何潜在地结合基于GAI的应用。以下具体研究问题将指导该项目：1)GAI目前如何用于相关领域的研究和教学，例如计算和STEM教育，以及对工程教育的影响是什么？2)目前工程教育工作者在研究和教学活动中对GAI的认识如何？3)哪些用例和场景可以帮助在工程教育研究和教学中有效和负责任地使用GAI ？为了解决这些问题，将开展与研究人员和教育工作者的合作设计研讨会。通过这些研讨会，将开发和评估在工程教育中使用GAI的方案。下一步，研究人员和教师将被要求将这些场景纳入他们的工作流程，以便进一步评估它们的可用性和实用性。利用用户提供的反馈，该项目将创建并自由传播一套为从事工程教育研究或教授工程的人员设计的场景和指导方针。通过这个项目，社区也将受益于与GAI在工程教育中的使用有关的对话和辩论的机会。这项工作将为建立社会技术基础设施奠定基础，这对于促进工程教育中有效和负责任地使用GAI至关重要。考虑到GAI塑造工程教育的潜力，这个项目可能是一个潜在的更大项目的第一次迭代。最后，该项目还将通过确定使用GAIs和相关技术的障碍，以及这些障碍如何限制更具包容性的工程教育目标，并概述负责任和道德地使用该技术的指导方针，做出贡献。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) are affecting almost all aspects of the engineering profession. Recent developments in Generative AI (GAI) and the popularity of technologies like Grammarly, ChatGPT, GitHub CoPilot are changing the way that engineers communicate, design, code, and teach, creating efficiencies and potentially new opportunities, particularly for marginalized individuals for whom GAI technologies can lower barriers. Given the potential impact of these technologies on the engineering profession, it is imperative that engineering educators are both aware of GAI and able to use it productively for teaching and for engineering education research. This project will explore the impact of GAI technologies on the engineering research and teaching community while developing and evaluating methods as well as resources for supporting the adoption and integration of these technologies in research and teaching practices. Through this, the project will support the formation of future engineers and workforce development. In addition, given that the use of GAI is also giving rise to novel ethical challenges that need to be addressed, this work will also evaluate how engineering educators can use GAI responsibly. Whether in research, for data analysis and writing, and idea generation, or in teaching, for planning lessons or exercises. By helping the engineering education community embrace GAI in optimal ways this project will allow diverse stakeholders to take advantage of GAI. Findings from this project will be leveraged by educators to improve engineering education research and teaching with broader impact on the preparation of current and future engineers. Through a combination of literature review and online data collection and analysis, the project will identify how engineering education research and teaching can potentially incorporate GAI based applications. The following specific research questions will guide the project: 1) How is GAI currently being used for research and teaching in related fields, such as computing and STEM education, and what are the implications for engineering education? 2) What is the current awareness of GAI among engineering educators in relation to their research and teaching activities? 3) What use cases and scenarios can assist with effective and responsible use of GAI for engineering education research and teaching? To address these questions, collaborative co-design workshops with researchers and educators will be undertaken. Through these workshops, scenarios for the use of GAI within engineering education will be developed and evaluated. As a next step, researchers and instructors will be asked to incorporate the scenarios into their workflow so that their usability and utility can be further assessed. Using the feedback provided by the users, the project will create and freely disseminate a set of scenarios and guidelines designed for those who do engineering education research or teach engineering. Through this project, the community will also benefit through opportunities for dialogues and debates related to the use of GAI in engineering education. This work will lay the foundation for building socio-technical infrastructure essential for facilitating effective and responsible use of GAI within engineering education. Given the potential for GAI to shape engineering education, this project can be the first iteration of a potentially larger project. Finally, the project will also contribute by identifying barriers to the use of GAIs and related technology and how that might restrict the goals of more inclusive engineering education and outline guidelines for responsible and ethical use of the technology.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.