The Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering (CSEE) recognizes that Generative AI tools can help students communicate and are useful when brainstorming, ideating, or building temporary scaffolds. CSEE also recognizes that Generative AI is not a substitute for careful, well-reasoned thinking; that its output can be incorrect, misleading, or otherwise harmful; that its overuse has profoundly negative environmental impacts; and that an over-reliance on Generative AI reduces cognitive engagement with acts of creation.

With these considerations in mind, this policy reaffirms our commitment to producing high- quality scholarly work. CSEE reaffirms the following baseline expectations for all academic documents produced by its students, faculty, and staff. This applies to course assignments, project deliverables, dissertations, theses, culminating experience reports, and patent-related documents (cumulatively referred to as scholarly work).

CSEE holds the author or authors of scholarly work responsible for their content, regardless of the processes and tools used to create them. As examples, building on common academic issues associated with Generative AI, it is the authors’ responsibility to make sure that referenced citations are valid, that arguments are self-consistent, and that claims are adequately supported. AI tools should not be used to produce any graphics associated with research data.

CSEE holds the author or authors of scholarly works responsible for originality. In publishing their work, the authors are expected to disclose its origin and relationship to other related works and/or to credit other works from which it was derived. Content produced using AI tools (including the use of Generative AI tools in a supporting role; e.g., editing for grammar) must be clearly identified with a subsection, footnote, or appendix in the scholarly work.

CSEE expects the author or authors of a publication to take ownership of the published material. Through publication, authors assert their understanding and approval of the work. To this end, AI tools should never be listed as coauthors on scholarly works.

Reports, thesis and dissertations produced by CSEE students which contain data-driven results should, at a minimum, provide open access to the test and validation data needed to reproduce the key results.   

Violations of this policy will be addressed on a case-by-case basis, beginning with a meeting between the students, the research supervisor, the CSEE director of graduate studies, and the CSEE department chair.

Acknowledgment: This policy was developed with adaptations from the AI policy drafted by the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE).