Bjarke changes focus as AI makes everything faster: “We need to teach students everything they can’t prompt their way out of”

It does not take many hours before the first frustrations emerge.

The structural engineering students are waiting for the geotechnical engineering students. The tasks have to be solved while meeting the requirements of both disciplines, deadlines are slipping, and collaboration sometimes reaches an impasse.

“They find each other really annoying at first,” says Bjarke Aggersbøl Apollo with a smile.

The scene is not unfolding at a construction meeting, but during the sixth semester of the Bachelor of Engineering programme.

Over three and a half days, 55 students work together on a real-world project chosen by lecturer Bjarke Aggersbøl Apollo.

This time, they are working on a current development project in Randers, where a new climate bridge and the transformation of a heritage-listed building have to be considered together.

The assignment brings all the disciplines into play and requires collaboration across them.

The workshop quickly exposes everything artificial intelligence cannot help them with: conflict management, coordination and communication between disciplines.

“They complain about each other – but that’s what reality is like. They quickly learn how dependent they are on each other’s expertise, and what it takes to work on a construction site,” he says.

“The best projects are the ones where you address the conflict at the beginning and find good solutions together.”

Bjarke Aggersbøl Apollo is not focused on the output of the workshop itself. He is more interested in whether the students learn about the processes and the collaboration.

“AI can do many things. Calculate and write reports. But it can’t make the geotechnical engineer and the structural engineer understand each other. That’s what they have to learn here.”

There is no point in fighting AI

Bjarke Aggersbøl Apollo is a relatively new lecturer at the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering.

He was hired as an assistant professor last year and teaches students in their first and sixth semesters.

He brings many years of experience from the construction industry, where he has primarily worked with digitalisation, product development and BIM.

And he insists on bringing current construction projects into the classroom.

“The field is moving incredibly fast. We need to keep up with developments in the industry and educate students for the reality that awaits them. Otherwise, we risk teaching them outdated tools,” he says.

He does not believe it makes sense to think of digitalisation as a subject in its own right. It already permeates engineering education. The same goes for artificial intelligence.

That is why it is pointless for universities to fight AI – or to retreat exclusively towards analogue methods in an attempt to prevent cheating.

“We can’t stop students from using ChatGPT and everything else. The technology is here and it is being used – also in industry,” he says.

But AI is changing teaching nonetheless.

“It has introduced a completely new pace, where you can get answers and solutions to the most complicated questions in a split second,” he says.

“In response to that, I slow things down.”

“Not because we need to be old-fashioned as a university, but because there is learning in the workings. In the considerations. In setting up experiments and discussing them. In getting things wrong and trying again. AI jumps straight to the answer.”

Everything they can’t prompt their way out of

In the past, much of teaching was about finding the right answer. Today, it is just as much about being able to assess whether the answer is actually correct.

“Our job is to teach students to think critically about the answers they get,” he says.

Students still need to be able to calculate, design and engineer. But that is no longer enough.

“We need to teach them to navigate complex construction projects, collaborate across disciplines and handle everything they can’t prompt their way out of.”

The students need to learn to look beyond their own specialism and use their minds in a different way than they are used to, Bjarke Aggersbøl Apollo believes.

“They specialise early in their education with us, but they also need to learn to speak the same engineering language – or at least understand each other.”

“Otherwise, it will be a rude awakening when they enter the construction industry.”

When the premise for teaching changes, teaching has to adapt.

“Interdisciplinary understanding is so important – also in a time of artificial intelligence. AI can provide answers, but it cannot make people understand each other or resolve conflicts.”

“That is why we do the workshop. And it may well be that I don’t score the highest satisfaction ratings when we evaluate the workshop. But it is the only way they learn this,” he says with a smile.

“I am convinced that the students who cannot see the value of the course here and now will see it when they enter the construction industry.”