2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

WIP: Teaching What AI Can’t Do: A Task-Level Roadmap for the Future of Engineering Education

Presented at Educational Research and Methods Division (ERM) Poster Session

This Work-in-Progress (WIP) paper investigates how artificial intelligence (AI) may reshape engineering work through a task-based analysis of nationally standardized occupational descriptions. Rather than forecasting job displacement or evaluating specific AI tools, this study examines how AI may interact with the tasks that define engineering practice across disciplines. Guided by human capital complementarity theory, we analyzed task descriptions from the U.S. Department of Labor’s O*NET database for engineering occupations. Using qualitative content analysis, each task was coded according to its likely relationship with AI as substitutable, augmentable, complementary, or emergent. Preliminary findings indicate that AI is more often positioned as augmenting or complementing engineering work than replacing it. Augmentable tasks were most common in analytical and modeling-intensive activities, where engineers remained responsible for interpreting outputs and validating results. Complementary tasks were prominent in integrative work, emphasizing human judgment, coordination, and accountability. In contrast, substitutable and emergent tasks were less common. These findings suggest that the enduring value of engineers’ work lies not only in technical execution, but in interpretation, judgment, and responsibility. As such, engineering education should increasingly prepare students to critically engage AI-generated outputs, integrate technical and contextual considerations, and exercise professional judgment in complex practice.

Authors

Dr. Camila Olivero-Araya http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5251-3911 The Ohio State University [biography]

Camila is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Engineering Education at The Ohio State University. She earned her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Industrial Engineering from Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción in Chile and her Ph.D. in Engineering Education from The Ohio State University.
Dr. Mayra S Artiles http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7604-0410 The Ohio State University [biography]

Dr. Mayra S. Artiles is an assistant professor in the Engineering Education Department at The Ohio State University. She also holds an adjunct position at Arizona State University. Her research expertise includes doctoral engineering programs, the experiences of minoritized students, particularly Latinos, in doctoral engineering programs, and doctoral advising relationships. She is the recipient of the prestigious NSF CAREER, with her project focusing on the studying how Hispanic Serving Institutions enact servingness in the doctoral experiences of Latino engineering students. Artiles research has received the Outstanding Dissertation Award in Graduate and Post-Doctoral Education across the Disciplines from the American Educational Research Association. She is a member of the Bouchet Honor Society, the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), the American Educational Research Association (AERA), and Tau Beta Pi. Before transitioning into engineering education, Artiles worked at Ford Motor Company as an Electrified Vehicle Thermal Engineer for four years in Dearborn, Michigan & Oakville, Canada.
Sherri Youssef http://orcid.org/0009-0007-4647-0533 The Ohio State University [biography]

Sherri Youssef is a PhD candidate in the Department of Engineering Education at The Ohio State University. Her research interests include the intersection of belongingness with motivation and experience of regional campus undergraduate engineering students. She completed both her M.S. in Mechanical Engineering and her B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering at The Ohio State University as well.
Miss Amanda Singer Nault http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7251-0067 The Ohio State University [biography]

Amanda Singer Nault is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Engineering Education at The Ohio State University. She graduated in 2021 from Michigan Tech with a Bachelor's and Master's of Science in Environmental Engineering. Her current research interests include engineering identity formation, regional campus engineering education, and mixed methods research.
Dr. Kirsten A. Davis http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9929-5587 Purdue University – West Lafayette (College of Engineering) [biography]

Kirsten Davis is an assistant professor in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. Her research explores the intentional design and assessment of global engineering programs, student development through experiential learning, and approaches for teaching and assessing systems thinking skills. Kirsten holds a B.S. in Engineering & Management from Clarkson University and an M.A.Ed. in Higher Education, M.S. in Systems Engineering, and Ph.D. in Engineering Education, all from Virginia Tech.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 21, 2026, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 24, 2026

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