2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

As artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as large language models (LLMs) gain increasing prominence in engineering education, it is essential to equip students with the skills to use these tools responsibly and effectively. This paper presents a novel assignment designed for engineering leadership and project management students, where they utilize LLMs—such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, and PMI Infinity—to solve scheduling problems, including Critical Path Method (CPM) and Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT). The assignment encourages students to critically evaluate and compare the output from different language models, providing a hands-on approach to understanding both the capabilities and limitations of AI in solving complex engineering tasks. In addition to generating solutions, students are tasked with identifying and refining prompts to improve the accuracy and usefulness of the AI outputs. The objective of this research is to assess the effectiveness of this assignment in enhancing students' critical thinking skills through the students’ feedback and fostering a deeper understanding of AI's role in project scheduling. Through the analysis of student performance and AI-generated solutions, this study evaluates the quality of scheduling problem-solving outcomes and offers practical guidelines for crafting more effective AI prompts. The findings suggest that this assignment not only improves students' ability to use AI tools responsibly but also helps them recognize and mitigate errors in both AI responses and human prompts. This paper contributes to the growing body of knowledge on integrating AI into engineering management education and provides actionable insights into how educators can leverage these technologies to improve learning outcomes in scheduling and project management courses.