Peter Ostafichuk, University of British Columbia

Title: The Pivotal Five Years: Reimagining Engineering Education in the Age of AI

Abstract

Higher education has long rested on three promises: privileged access to knowledge, responsive instruction, and access to world-leading expertise. In practice, these were only partially realised, but there was no viable alternative to challenge the status quo. Now, the proliferation of freely available high-quality content and the rapid expansion of AI capabilities are increasingly perceived as credible threats to the higher education model. What has not changed is how people learn or the capabilities expected of graduating engineers. Evidence from the learning sciences shows that effective learning depends not on content exposure but on guided progression, with purposeful challenge and actionable feedback. At the same time, engineering practice continues to demand critical thinking, ethical judgment, social awareness, creativity, and collaboration. In combination, these considerations remain beyond the reach of current technology. This keynote argues that we stand at a moment of both risk and opportunity. The longstanding reliance on traditional approaches in education is no longer defensible, and there is new urgency to rethink both how we teach and how our value is understood beyond the university. The alternative is obsolescence. The question is how do we lead the transformation of engineering education when it is not just our own courses, but entire programs that must evolve.