2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Integrating Prompt Engineering into Power Electronics Contents

Presented at DSAI-Session 3: Faculty Development and Instructor Support in AI Education

This paper presents an integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and prompt engineering tools into the undergraduate Electrical Engineering in Power Electronics course. It provides an analysis of students' preferences for learning from resources on semiconductor devices, converter theory, and their applications, with the objective of identifying effective resources that accommodate diverse learning needs.

The study explores how AI and prompt engineering impact student learning outcomes by examining a range of educational resources. It particularly highlights the role of prompt engineering in the field of power electronics through a review of various materials, including course textbooks, YouTube videos, Google AI, ChatGPT, and additional online educational sites. The findings suggest that emerging AI tools can significantly enhance engineering education, serving primarily as supplementary resources within a comprehensive teaching framework.

Among the three institutions examined, textbooks were identified as the primary learning resource, while YouTube offered valuable visual and explanatory content. ChatGPT was found to provide moderate assistance but did not replace formal instruction. Overall, the study underscores the necessity of structured guidance to help students effectively choose resources, craft impactful prompts, and critically assess technical information.

AI tools provide students with opportunities to enhance self-directed learning and tailor their educational experiences. However, the effectiveness of these tools is heavily reliant on student engagement. Without appropriate guidance, students may face challenges in navigating misleading information regarding complex power electronics concepts. This highlights the essential role of prompt engineering as a vital skill for effective learning. By equipping students to formulate precise, well-structured questions, educators can ensure that AI tools contribute positively to engineering education. Thoughtfully constructed prompts can foster critical thinking, prompting students to clarify their assumptions, evaluate alternatives, and validate their findings, ultimately deepening their conceptual understanding.

Authors

Dr. Tooran Emami Ph. D. United States Coast Guard Academy [biography]

Tooran Emami is a tenured full professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computing at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy (USCGA). She earned her M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Wichita State University in 2006 and 2009, respectively. Her research focuses on control and power systems, with a particular interest in Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controller design, robust control, time delay, compensator design for continuous-time and discrete-time systems, analog and digital filter design, and hybrid power system design.
Dr. Farid Farahmand http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9610-4901 Sonoma State University [biography]

Dr. Farid Farahmand is a tenured professor of Electrical Engineering at Sonoma State University and a former department chair, with prior industry experience as a research scientist at Alcatel-Lucent Corporate Research, where he contributed to the development of terabit optical networking systems. His work focuses on resilient communication systems, large-scale IoT platforms, and low-power embedded technologies, with applications in public safety, healthcare, and community infrastructure. He is the founder of the Advanced Internet Technologies in the Interest of Society (AITIS) Lab, where he leads interdisciplinary, hands-on projects that integrate sensor data, wireless networks, and intelligent systems, including real-time health monitoring platforms and community-scale emergency communication networks such as EmergiNet. Dr. Farahmand has also collaborated with national laboratories and government agencies, including Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and NIST, on advanced sensing, bioimaging, and smart city initiatives. Dr. Farahmand holds multiple patents and has an extensive record of publications across wireless communications, optical networking, IoT, and engineering education, with a strong emphasis on experiential learning and student-centered innovation.
Dr. Reza Kamali-Sarvestani California State University San Marcos [biography]

Dr. Reza Kamali-Sarvestani is a Professor and department chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering at California State University San Marcos. He received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Shiraz University, and M.S.E, Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. His research interests include educational research and wearable electronic circuits and systems.

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