I was part of a panel discussion about AI and education recently .
Government Engineering College Bhavnagar has organised Academic Laurites Awards-2025. The Principal and organising team are kind enough to invite me to the panel.
Following is the transcript of my answers and discussion to the questions asked by panel moderator and the audience.
Moderator:
We see a lack of opportunity for the freshers. How do we fix that?
Prashant:
Saying “lack of opportunity” is a myth. We should say lack of willingness to work, lack of skills or gaps between expectations, but not lack of opportunity.
I would like to remember an intern we had a couple of years back. She was recommended by one of his professors and walked in with no exceptions of profile or stipend, but a deep desire to work and learn.
A 5th semester IT engineering student — she had worked on data collection to production and packaging, everything she could do and learn.
At the departing moment we paid her a stipend and a certificate too. But more importantly, we issued a letter addressing the principal, explaining her commitment towards her work and her other abilities. That was our effort to bring deserving glory to the young girl.
So believe me, lack of opportunity is a myth and will remain a myth forever.
Moderator:
How students can use AI to improve their chances and have career opportunities.
Prashant:
Following are the ways they can use AI to improve themselves.
1) Use AI to sharpen their skills. Use it as a question engine and not an answer engine (this I have said in an older blog on havi.co and explained during the AI awareness sessions too, which we conduct for parents and teachers). Ask AI not to solve your maths or coding problem, ask it to generate more questions for you so you can solve them. That’s how you build your skills.
2) Use AI to supplement yourself. I have always seen freshers who can code well but can’t document their work, hence suffer in their career.
3) Show-case that modern technology can solve problems of industry.
A few days back, I was interviewing a final year student for an internship. During the discussion he asked if he could show a few things. I welcomed the gesture.
He opened his laptop and explained an AI agent he has built — though very basic and not performing at 100%. But this made him start coming at 10 AM at the office the next morning. 🙂
That’s how you create opportunities for yourself using AI.
Moderator:
Students getting their assignments done by AI has become a norm. How do you see this?
Prashant:
I might have an unpopular opinion here.
We all are engineers and we all know how we have submitted our assignments. Any difference?
The question should not be how to stop students using AI for assignments. The question is how relevant the whole system of assignments is.
It’s time teachers and educators be creative and rethink assignments.
1) We can offer open book assignments which students will complete during their class time only. May be given 4 hours, a few questions and books. Students will read and prepare their assignments. Teachers can use AI to generate even personalized questions for each student.
2) Short projects and DIY as assignments are great. As a person in deep love of creative play and building a company wide-spreading the same, I would recommend this for engineering students too. Assign short, half a day to full day project making to them. And the outcome and its documentation should be reviewed for grading.
3) There can be assignments which force a student to be in the physical world. A civil engineering student can be asked to go to one of the buildings of the college and find out certain measurements and prepare certain ratios. A mechanical engineering student can be given a gear and asked to calculate and draw a connecting gear to achieve something.
4) Certain assignments can be designed considering AI only. Why not ask the outcome along with the prompts they have used? And then review a book and prepare a comparison report of outcome generated by AI and what’s given in the book.
5) Prepare assignments where students are graded for the process and not the outcome.
Here are the concluding remarks.
Students: AI is a curse if you use it to replace your thinking, and it’s a boon if you use it to amplify your thinking.
Teachers: While preparing anything for students, ask “How to make students think” and not “how to make students stop using AI”.
I hope this helps engineering educators and students alike.