2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Higher education has been caught by storm through the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLM) such as chatGPT. Clearly, there are multiple roles for these sorts of tools to play in higher education, and in particular within engineering and computer science curricula. In this work, we have taken a different approach. At [institution redacted] we have formed a multidisciplinary collaboration to utilize the principles behind AI and LLM to develop an institutional-level chatbot to serve the university community, including students, staff, faculty, administration, alumni and the community.
As a large, public land grant, doctoral university with a very high research activity, as well as engagement in every county in our state through the Extension service, our chatbot is:
- intended to aid in undergraduate student recruiting and provide guidance for initial student placement in appropriate majors.
- serve as a tool to assist in domestic and international graduate student recruiting in line with the institutional research priorities of autonomy, economic development, addressing disparity and cybersecurity.
- be a resource for the university community to aid in student persistence, retention and graduate through both academic advising and student support services cosponsored by the division of academic affairs and the division of student affairs.
- beyond academic affairs and student life, serve as a gateway for citizens of the state to become connected with university services such as Extension, Center for Entrepreneurship & Outreach, Small Business Development Center and the Center for Community-Engaged Learning.
In this work, the processes behind the development of the algorithm for this tool and detailed case studies for the College of Engineering and other university level services will be outlined. We will also demonstrate the software and present the results from interviews of various focus groups formed from constituencies both inside and outside of campus.