Conference Agenda

GenAI tools are increasingly used in research projects, and they have become an integral part of the working routines and practices of many PhD students. However, this aspect of their work is often being ignored and hasn’t received enough attention by PhD supervisors. For that reason, a reflexive approach seems necessary in developing Ph.D. students’ competencies to use these tools in a responsible, ethical and appropriate manner.

This workshop invites both experienced researchers and PhD students to a collaborative forum, aimed to critically examine the potential roles of GenAI tools in PhD research. The aim of this workshop is to share the practices between PhD students and to make proposals for fair and efficient use of GenAI tools in PhD projects, considering the immediate benefits of GenAI tools but also their long-term implications for PhD students and their professional journeys. In an engaging and interactive way, PhD students will participate in workshop activities and discuss various cases of use of GenAI tools. Two main group activities will be related to – sharing previous experience with GenAI tools and how PhD students envision fair usage of GenAI tools.

Through reflection on previous experiences and open discussion, a set of pragmatic recommendations for PhD students and PhD supervisors will be synthesised and proposed. Emphasis will be placed on the selection of AI research tools, validation of the sources, consideration of ethical aspects and reflection on the output quality. Finally, findings and conclusions will be later shared with the workshop participants after the conference.

Being able to quickly produce visuals of design ideas/concepts is an essential aspect of the product design process. This workshop will introduce participants to an innovative AI tool that is revolutionizing the way designers generate high-quality images using their own sketches as input. The workshop will offer a unique opportunity for conference attendees to explore the potential of AI in product design and gain practical skills. It will provide participants with not only an opportunity to expand their knowledge and skill set, but also to engage with the ongoing conversation around the rise of AI technology, and its integration in design education.

Participants will:

Learn about the capabilities of Vizcom and its potential to enhance the design process.

Explore different scenarios in which the tool can be applied and how (i.e., how to use it in combination with other tools/methods).

Learn how to use Vizcom. Participants will try the tool and will learn about the different commands, options and procedures.

Discuss potential workflows integrating the tool into the design process. The intention is that participants reflect on their own teaching practice, and envision how Vizcom could be integrated into coursework design projects.

The workshop should be attractive to many conference attendees, particularly as it is directly related to the overall theme of the conference (addressing the intersection of AI and traditional design practices). Attendees will not only gain insight about state-of-the-art developments in the field, but about their potential to enhance the design projects they develop for their students. Moreover, the workshop will offer an opportunity to interact and share experiences and knowledge with other participants with similar interests.

The knowledge from this workshop should empowering participants with new tools and techniques to enhance their creativity and teaching practice, foster collaboration and exchange of ideas, and encourage the community to go beyond the boundaries of traditional design practices.

Aim:

Seeking a collective understanding of what difference workshop participants think AI makes to the engineering design processes that UG engineering students should learn to be capable in.
(Nothing to do with teaching methods.)

Significance:

If AI changes the engineering design processes and hence capabilities likely to be needed by graduates, we should be prepared to evolve our engineering teaching material to provide the capabilities which we agree are most valuable. We may need to move away from teaching capabilities which are likely to be superseded by graduates’ likely practice (using AI) in engineering design after 3-5 UG years.

Audience:

University staff teaching engineering design, plus,

those interested in the applications of AI to engineering design (which affect the capabilities needed by graduates).

Benefit to the community:

Personal reflections of attendees on the workshop content and conclusions – potentially informing engineering design teaching material.

Networking and potential for collaboration on articles or journal/conference papers for wider reference.

With this years conference on Rise of the Machines: Design Education in the Generative AI Era, we as a community have built a resource of knowledge on what we know about AI in Engineering and product design education. In this workshop we will ask how we can best use this resource.

Acting as a snapshot in time, this meta-analysis will reveal what is known and what is still unknown by our community. Participants will be asked to conduct a thematic analysis of the submitted papers at this years conference building a map of the known. Knowledge of participants will then ask what opportunities there are for future research.

We seek a diverse profile of participants from the delegate pool and invite all to join. Even if your knowledge of AI or education is limited.

What to Expect:

• Introduction to AI in Engineering and Product Design Education
• Hands-On thematic analysis activity
• Mapping of the challenges yet to be solved
• Conclusion on outcomes of the workshop

We aim to publish these results at a future conference. 

We are excited to introduce a special event tailored for early career researchers attending the conference. On September 4th, following the welcome drinks, all delegates are invited to a social gathering to connect with early career researchers and foster a sense of belonging within the E&PDE community. Various activities will be organised to facilitate interactions and discussions about PhD and ECR research topics.

If you would like to participate as an ECR in our activities please use the link: 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScS6iVU3lRNbvGwqrE8A9o99zAsb3qpLrGNwl5Ai-BEan4dBQ/viewform?usp=sf_link 

One of the activities will be a poster session. Participants interested in presenting a poster are encouraged to inform the organizing team through the registration link. 

Mandy Chessell CBE FREng is a trusted advisor to executives from large organisations, working with them to develop their strategy and architecture relating to the governance, integration and management of information. Mandy worked for IBM for 35 years, the last 15 as an IBM Distinguished Engineer.  She is now one of the founders of Pragmatic Data Research Ltd, dedicated to improving the transparency, security and efficiency of digital operations and data management.  Mandy is also the honorary president of the Institution of Engineering Designers (IED).

Mandy has been developing integration software throughout her career. Her focus has always been on using and supporting open standards to achieve heterogeneous-interoperability.  Today Mandy is the leader and top contributor to the Egeria Open Source project (https://egeria-project.org) which is part of the LF AI & Data Foundation.  Egeria is focused on providing an open metadata and governance technology that is able to exchange, integrate and correlate metadata from different tools, engines and platforms.

Mandy is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. In 2015 she received a CBE for services to software engineering.  In 2000, she was identified as one of MIT Technology Review's hundred young people most likely to make significant 21st Century technical innovation. She is also distinguished as the first woman to win a Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal. Mandy has published numerous titles and has over 50 patents issued worldwide.

We have unfortunately been let down, at very short notice, by our second keynote speaker for the Friday morning.

The organising committee have put their heads together and have decided to make use of this time, by allowing delegates to network.

You might be feeling slightly jaded from the night before, so come and join us in the Design Factory for a leisurely coffee and chat.

If a conversation that you started on the Thursday evening at the dinner, didn’t get finished, then please use this time to allow the conversation to continue.

And don’t feel that you need to rush your start of the day to meet with us from 9:30am, you might benefit from and extra couple of minutes beauty sleep.