2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Toward a Verification and Validation Framework for Strategic AI Integration in Engineering Education: Instructor Reflections Across Three Use Cases

Presented at Aerospace Division (AERO) Technical Session 3: AI, UAS, and Emerging Technologies

The integration of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools in engineering education presents both opportunities and challenges for educators seeking to preserve academic standards while enhancing learning outcomes. This study addresses the research question: How can verification and validation principles be applied as a structured pedagogical framework to support the strategic integration of AI into engineering courses, improving learning while maintaining academic rigor? Using a qualitative use-case approach based on instructor reflections from three use cases spanning graduate and undergraduate engineering courses, we document pedagogical innovations that transform AI from an academic integrity concern into an explicit learning tool that scaffolds student development within the Zone of Proximal Development. Drawing on these verification and validation principles, along with the Definition, Abstraction, and Implementation framework, we examine AI integration from both instructor-centered (top-down) and student-centered (bottom-up) perspectives. The latter is represented through instructor observation of student work and engagement rather than direct student-reported data. Our findings suggest that strategic AI integration, when grounded in structured pedagogical frameworks and applied across both perspectives, shows promise for enhancing learning experiences and instructor teaching practices without compromising academic standards. These findings point toward directions for future empirical validation.

Authors

Waterloo Tsutsui http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5645-4683 Purdue University – West Lafayette (College of Engineering) [biography]

Dr. Waterloo Tsutsui is a Senior Research Associate in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue University. Tsutsui received his Ph.D. in aeronautics and astronautics from Purdue University in 2017. Before joining Purdue, Tsutsui practiced engineering in the automotive industry for more than a decade, culminating as a Senior Mechanical Engineer focused on research and development of lithium-ion battery systems for electric vehicles. His research interests include systems engineering, structures and materials, product design and advanced manufacturing, and engineering education. Tsutsui is the recipient of the 2023 Engineering Education Excellence Award from the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE).
Yinchien Huang Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE) [biography]

Yinchien Huang is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue University. His research focuses on System of Systems (SoS) engineering, AI-assisted system engineering, ontology, Urban Air Mobility (UAM), and space systems. He is developing an LLM-based tool to support SoS decision-making and data sources integration, enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of complex system interactions.
Jason Chen Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE) [biography]

Jason Chen is a Ph.D. student at the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue University. His research interests are in guidance, navigation, and control (GNC). He received his bachelors of mechanical engineering from The Cooper Union in 2024.
Cesare Guariniello Purdue University - West Lafayette (College of Engineering) [biography]

Dr. Cesare Guariniello is a Principal Research Scholar in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics in Purdue University. He holds two master’s degrees, in Automation and Robotics Engineering, and in Astronautical Engineering, from the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. In 2016, he earned a PhD in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Purdue University, with an award-winning dissertation on System of Systems methodologies to support space systems design. His research interests include System of Systems design and architecture –including various space applications–, space robotics, and defense. His research projects have been funded, among others, by NASA, the US Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation, the US Navy, and Lockheed Martin. He subsequently expanded his research in the field of Earth Sciences, with courses and research in a master’s program in Planetary Geology, studying remote sensing for In-Situ Resource Utilization on Mars. He is a senior member of IEEE and AIAA, vice chair of the AIAA Space and Automation and Robotics Technical Committee (SARTC), and member of INCOSE.
Prof. Shreyas Sundaram Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE) [biography]

Shreyas Sundaram is the Marie Gordon Professor in the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University, and Co-Director of the Institute for Control, Optimization and Networks (ICON). He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2009, and was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Pennsylvania from 2009 to 2010. He was an Assistant Professor at the University of Waterloo from 2010 to 2014. His research interests include control of distributed and multi-agent systems, fault-tolerant and secure control, game theory, and network science. Dr. Sundaram is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER award, and the Intel Outstanding Researcher Award. At Purdue, he received the Dean A. A. Potter Award for Teaching Excellence, the Dean H. T. Yang Leadership in Service Award, the HKN Outstanding Professor Award, the Outstanding Mentor of Engineering Graduate Students Award, the Hesselberth Award for Teaching Excellence, and the Ruth and Joel Spira Outstanding Teacher Award.
Dr. Jitesh H Panchal Purdue University – West Lafayette (College of Engineering) [biography]

Dr. Jitesh H. Panchal is a Professor and Associate Head of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University. He received his BTech (2000) from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati, and MS (2003) and PhD (2005) in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Panchal's research interests are in (1) design at the interface of social and physical phenomena, (2) computational methods and tools for digital engineering, and (3) secure design and manufacturing. He is a recipient of CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (NSF); Young Engineer Award, Guest Associate Editor Award, and three best paper awards from ASME; and was recognized by the B.F.S. Schaefer Outstanding Young Faculty Scholar Award, the Ruth and Joel Spira Award, and as one of the Most Impactful Faculty Inventors at Purdue University. He received the Distinguished Alumni award from IIT Guwahati. He is a co-author of two books and has co-edited one book on engineering systems design. He has served on the editorial board of international journals including ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, ASME Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering.
Daniel Delaurentis http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8455-8540 Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE) [biography]

Dr. Daniel DeLaurentis is Vice President for Discovery Park District (DPD) Institutes and the Bruce Reese professor of Aeronautics & Astronautics at Purdue University. He directs the Center for Integrated Systems in Aerospace (CISA) researching modeling, design optimization and system engineering methods for aerospace systems and systems-of-systems, including urban and regional Advanced Aerial Mobility and hypersonic systems. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue. DeLaurentis served as Chief Scientist of the U.S. DoD’s Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC) UARC from 2019-2023. He is an elected FELLOW of the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics (AIAA) and the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE).

Download paper (3.1 MB)

Are you a researcher? Would you like to cite this paper? Visit the ASEE document repository at peer.asee.org for more tools and easy citations.

» Download paper

« View session