AI THE VILLANOVA WAY

From environmental impact to student collaboration and transparency, the College tackles the thorny ethical issues surrounding artificial intelligence

By Albert Stumm

During Jonathan Cross’ first year at Villanova, artificial intelligence was more of an abstract eventuality than an active threat to academic integrity. Just a couple of years later, the Chemical Engineering major uses ChatGPT so often that he pays for the premium version.

His professors know, and they’re OK with that. In fact, some professors require it.

“The work of five engineers is soon going to become the work of three engineers, and they want to prepare you to be one of those three engineers,” says Cross ’27 ChE.

The message is: AI is coming, like it or not. Just use it responsibly.

Cross says that with professors’ guidance, using AI has cut down the time it takes to write one type of technical report from about six hours to only two. He has used the technology to help fill out the safety section in a lab report, and he regularly uses it to speed up the cumbersome task of formatting his work.

Professors require that students divulge what AI platform they used and the prompts that helped them arrive at their conclusions. Students are responsible for the output and must understand it and verify its correctness. Professors can also limit AI use when it will interfere with student learning.

In the end, Cross says, if you’re using AI for answers instead of as a learning tool, you’re not doing yourself any favors.

“It can definitely do a lot, but if you don’t know the information, there’s no way to verify that you’re not submitting a steaming pile of garbage,” he says.

Leaders from University Technology Services and the Provost’s Office coordinate Villanova’s AI initiatives, under the guidance of faculty, staff and student  members of the AI Working Group, to ensure ethical use aligned with Augustinian Catholic values. Randy Weinstein, PhD, a Chemical and Biological Engineering professor and Villanova’s vice provost for Teaching and Learning, co-chairs the group.

Dr. Weinstein says the working group and the College of Engineering are tackling the thorny issue of how to use AI ethically. Central concerns include how to prepare students for a world where AI is ubiquitous while ensuring it doesn’t replace meaningful human interaction; encouraging transparency about when and how it’s used; and grappling with the environmental costs that accompany its rapid growth.

“Everybody can do AI, but not everybody can do AI the Villanova way,” Dr. Weinstein says. “We will lead the charge on doing it right and thoughtfully, making sure that students go out there with that Villanova flair that makes them stand out with their other skills, such as ethical leadership, communication, critical thinking, problem solving and caring for others and the world.”

Dr. Weinstein says that, as in most academic settings, initial concerns about AI involved the possibility of students abusing it to complete schoolwork. That legitimate concern, however, overshadowed several other potential ethical issues. For instance, he says, many people are unaware that AI queries have a large environmental impact, which conflicts with the University value of Caritas.

“You’re running a massive amount of computers in a data center, using a lot of electricity, producing a lot of waste heat and using a lot of water,” he says. “With our sustainability goals at Villanova, going all in on AI without considering the environmental impact is not wise.”

 “Everybody can do AI, but not everybody can do AI the
Villanova way. We will lead the charge on
doing it right and thoughtfully, making sure that students go out
there with that Villanova flair that makes them stand out with
their other skills.”

— Randy Weinstein, PhD,
professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering
and vice provost for Teaching and Learning

Educating people hopefully leads them to use AI only when necessary, rather than for any frivolous task, Dr. Weinstein says. Meanwhile, several researchers in the College—including Alfonso Ortega, PhD, the James R. Birle Professor of Energy Technology—are developing greener solutions for data centers.

Referring to the University tenet of Unitas, Dr. Weinstein notes that many people, not only students, have grown accustomed to interacting with machines and with other people through social media. Research shows that people who disconnect from others and rely more on social media are more likely to feel less empathy for others, he says.

“We have to stay true to who we are as people and as a society, caring for others and our sense of community,” Dr. Weinstein says, “which matched perfectly with Pope Leo’s recent encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas.”Thomas Sutherland ’27 CE says professors routinely encourage collaboration, but he’s experienced firsthand how overreliance on AI can work against it.

“With AI you don’t have to work together as much,” he says. “Of course, a very large part of the engineering field is being able to talk to people and figure out a problem together.”

Data privacy is also an unexpected area that the University has had to contend with, Dr. Weinstein says. Since AI platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini use queries to train their large language models, students and professors who run a unique idea into the platform are technically sharing it publicly. That would prevent them from seeking a patent or selling the idea.

Dr. Weinstein says the University has contracts with Microsoft and OpenAI to use versions of Copilot and ChatGPT that prohibit data sharing. “Otherwise, if you put in a research idea, you’ve disclosed it and lost all intellectual property rights to it,” he says.

Sutherland notes that even when you do use AI, what it generates is not always correct. He’s found it useful to format lab reports and help create a résumé, but its limits are obvious.

“In engineering, it’s not always correct with its methodologies when performing actual calculations,” he says. “Many times, if you put in an entire question, it won’t get it right on the first try.”

That said, it’s essential that students are equipped with all the tools they need to join the modern workforce, says David Jamison, PhD, a teaching professor of Mechanical Engineering and member of Villanova’s AI working group.

Dr. Jamison says some academics had feared that implementing AI would degrade the education students receive, but he likened it to the invention of the calculator.

“Everyone was up in arms years ago that people using calculators wouldn’t understand arithmetic,” he says. “The calculator is also just a tool. You still need to have a fundamental understanding of what’s going on.”

The College has responded to the evolving technology by adding academic programming dedicated to AI. There is now a minor in AI Engineering as well as an introductory course in developing generative AI models. Students will also regularly be challenged to consider the implications of AI in their coursework and in the College’s professional development programs.

“While AI might be here to stay, professionals in the workforce must understand how to deploy it ethically, while accounting for the potential societal and environmental impacts,” Dr. Jamison says. “But more importantly, the professionals of tomorrow must still be able to think critically and behave humanely with love for all, which is the hallmark of a Villanova Engineering education.”