2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools on college and university campuses is no longer a luxury that is only available to a privileged few. AI bots such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and others are widely available in free and paid versions with many of them being directly integrated into internet search engines. At this juncture, institutions of higher learning have one of three paths to take: either try to control the use of AI tools by either blocking access to them on their campuses or somehow making it against the rules to use them, do nothing, or, as a third option, regulate their use and strategically integrating them into their educational programs. Institutions that choose to adopt the first approach would most likely end up fighting a losing battle, and those that opt to do nothing will be losing out on an opportunity to adequately prepare their students for professional success. The last group of institutions will undoubtedly benefit their students the most as they would be training them on the appropriate and ethical uses of AI tools, thus adequately preparing them to be leaders in an increasingly AI dependent world. In this paper, the authors investigate approaches that can be used to integrate the proper use of AI in civil and construction engineering education. A comprehensive literature review of examples and challenges of AI integration in typical engineering and construction management courses is first presented. Subsequently, a number of case studies are used to demonstrate instructional approaches and methods of assessment. In conclusion, the authors make recommendations with respect to the dos and don’ts and share a number of best practices that can be adapted to various types of engineering and management courses.