2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a disruptive force in engineering education. It is reshaping how students ask questions, solve problems, and engage with data. As civil engineering educators, we strive to not only adapt to new technological advances like AI but also critically evaluate how they can enhance our teaching practices. This paper presents a cross-institutional collaboration between two civil engineering professors who have integrated generative AI tools and pedagogical strategies into their undergraduate and graduate courses. The study illustrates three contexts for AI implementation: (a) live in-class use, (b) student out-of-class use, and (c) instructor out-of-class use. Live in-class use included instructor-led demonstrations, student concept brainstorming, and clarifying student questions. Permitted student out-of-class use included problem-based homework, course project idea generation, and AI reflection assignments. Instructor out-of-class use included generating syllabi content, developing icebreakers, refining assignment prompts, and generating grading rubrics. Through a combination of student surveys, classroom artifacts, and instructor reflections, the paper evaluates student and instructor engagement with AI for civil engineering coursework. The authors found that intentional integration of generative AI looked different from course to course and that both their own engagement with AI and their students' engagement with AI increased as they became more comfortable with tools and better at prompt engineering. Future work should focus on the impact of AI on engineering judgment, critical thinking, and creativity.