Overview

In a world were AI becomes ubiquitous, it is essential that future graduates enter a professional workplace equipped with the skills to use this technology safely, ethically, and effectively.

To lay the foundations for this, students were tasked with developing a model using generative AI. They were awarded marks for their ability to engineer prompts, criticise the output, and suggest improvements to this theoretical model.

Following completion of this, they then tested how well the model matched experimental reality by testing it in a lab setting. Insight into student perceptions was gained through pre- and post-lab surveys.

Speaker

Matt Keith, Assistant Professor, University of Birmingham

Matt completed his PhD at the University of Birmingham in 2019, before moving to work for Johnson Matthey for two and a half years.

Following his return to academia in 2022, his research interests have developed to fall across the two main themes of sustainable chemical processing and chemical engineering education. Within the latter theme, he has led Masters' level research projects with the findings presented at Chem Eng Day UK. He also regularly participates in outreach events, with a particular focus on running plastics recycling workshops.

With the advent of generative AI, Matt developed an existing lab session to incorporate this nascent technology, for which he and the module co-ordinator won an Education Excellence Award in 2024.

The material presented in this webinar has not been peer-reviewed. Any opinions are the presenter’s own and do not necessarily represent those of IChemE or the Education Special Interest Group. The information is given in good faith but without any liability on the part of IChemE.

Webinar recording