| Title | EngE-AI: A Gen-AI App for Fostering Critical Thinking in Engineering Education |
|---|---|
| Faculty/College/Unit | Applied Science |
| Status | Active |
| Duration | 2 Year |
| Initiation | 04/01/2025 |
| Project Summary | *Special Call: GenAI Collaborative Cluster Grants* This project aims to develop a generative artificial intelligence tool, called EngE-AI, designed to address key teaching and learning needs in engineering education. EngE-AI can be customized for any course and offers two main features: virtual tutor guiding students through critical thinking elements based on Facione’s model and Socratic approach; virtual educational assistant generating context-rich real-world troubleshooting scenarios for instructors. For educators, EngE-AI saves tremendous time by automating the creation of non-conventional problems in addition to supporting the explicit teaching of critical thinking. For students, it provides access to a virtual tutor available anytime-anywhere, and scaffolded development of critical and global (as opposed to sequential) thinking skills as well as additional real-world practice problems. EngE-AI aims to modernize engineering education by significantly improving teaching efficiency, providing context-rich real-world problems, as well as enhancing student learning outcomes, fostering higher-order cognitive skills including critical-thinking. |
| Funding Details | |
| Year 1: Project Title | EngE-AI: A GenAI-augmented Tool to Enhance Engineering Education in Cultivating Critical Thinking |
| Year 1: Project Year | Year 1 |
| Year 1: Funding Year | 2025/2026 |
| Year 1: Project Type | Large TLEF |
| Year 1: Principal Investigator | Alireza Bagherzadeh |
| Year 1: Funded Amount | 87,198 |
| Year 1: Team Members | Alireza Bagherzadeh, Assistant Professor of Teaching, Chemical and Biological Engineering (CHBE), Faculty of Applied Science |
| Year 2: Project Year | Year 2 |
| Year 2: Funding Year | 2026/2027 |
| Year 2: Project Type | Large TLEF |
| Year 2: Principal Investigator | Alireza Bagherzadeh |
| Year 2: Funded Amount | 94,122 |
| Year 2: Team Members | Alireza Bagherzadeh, Assistant Professor of Teaching, CHBE, Faculty of Applied Science |