Přednáška profesora K. C. Park: Engineering Education and Careers in the Age of AI

Engineering Education and Careers
in the Age of AI

Why without how remains an intention.
How without why becomes an exercise.
Engineering requires both.
K. C. Park

Aerospace Mechanics Research Center
Department of Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences
University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA

Abstract
Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing how engineers learn, analyze, compute, and design. AI can generate
equations, write programs, suggest designs, and o!er seemingly convincing explanations within seconds. For
engineering students, these capabilities raise two pressing questions: What should I learn when AI can already
provide so many answers? And how should I prepare for an engineering career in an AI-driven world?
This lecture addresses these questions through the recurring engineering tasks of WHY–HOW–VERIFY:
understanding why a problem matters and how a physical system behaves; learning how to formulate, analyze,
design, and implement a solution; and independently checking whether that solution is correct, reliable, and
appropriate.
Two demonstrations based on classical vibration-absorber problems illustrate both the opportunities and
limitations of AI-assisted engineering. In particular, we ask: Does adding more masses, springs, and dampers
necessarily produce a better vibration absorber? This deceptively simple question shows why plausible
calculations and attractive plots cannot replace physical understanding, sound judgment, and experimental
evidence.
The lecture also considers independent thinking, laboratory experimentation, learning from unsuccessful
designs, and a proposed 90-day engineering challenge combining fundamentals, AI assistance, computation,
and experimental verification. Finally, it confronts the question of engineering employment in the age of
AI—not by predicting which jobs will survive, but by examining the practical capabilities and professional
judgment that aspiring engineers should develop.
The central message is that engineering education must prepare students not merely to obtain
answers, but to ask meaningful questions, make solutions work, and establish why those
solutions deserve to be trusted.