2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

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.