Adopted: May 5, 2026
Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Theses and Dissertations
Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools are increasingly accessible and may provide limited support in academic workflows. However, their use in theses and dissertations must be carefully restricted to preserve academic integrity, originality, reproducibility, and compliance with research funding and data-security requirements. The student bears full responsibility for all submitted content, regardless of any tools used.
The following guidelines apply within the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department. MS/PhD research advisors may impose stricter limitations or prohibit the use of Generative AI tools entirely. Failure to comply with these guidelines will be considered a violation of academic integrity policies and may result in institutional disciplinary action.
1. Text Generation and Editing
The use of Generative AI tools to produce original thesis or dissertation text is strictly prohibited. This includes generating sentences, paragraphs, sections, arguments, interpretations, or conclusions.
Limited use of Generative AI as a mechanical editing aid may be acceptable under the following conditions:
• Use is restricted to grammar correction, typo correction, and minor refinement of text originally written by the student.
• Generative AI tools must not introduce new technical content, interpretations, or structure.
• The student must discuss the use of such tools with their advisor in advance.
• The selected tool must be verified to comply with project funding agreements, intellectual property constraints, or data-security requirements (e.g., export control, proprietary or sensitive data exposure).
2. Figures and Visual Content
The use of Generative AI tools to create conceptual or illustrative figures (e.g., schematic diagrams, conceptual block diagrams, or figures intended solely to explain a general idea) is acceptable.
However, the use of Generative AI tools is strictly prohibited for generating:
• Figures representing experimental setups
• Figures showing simulation results, experimental results, or processed data
• Any visualizations that imply or summarize measured, simulated, or analyzed outcomes
All figures included in a thesis or dissertation must be fully reproducible from the described methodology, data, and analysis pipeline. Figures derived from experiments or simulations must be generated directly from the underlying data using appropriate scientific or engineering tools.
3. References and Citations
The use of Generative AI tools for generating or managing references is not allowed.
Students are strongly encouraged to use established reference-management tools such as BibTeX, EndNote, Zotero, or Mendeley for citation management.
Students should be aware that:
• References suggested or generated by Generative AI tools are often incomplete, incorrect, or fabricated.
• Bibliographic files (e.g., .bib files) produced by Generative AI tools must not be trusted or used, even if they appear syntactically correct.
The student is fully responsible for verifying the existence, accuracy, and relevance of all cited works.
4. Disclosure and Responsibility
Any use of Generative AI tools must be transparent and fully disclosed to the advisor. Regardless of disclosure, the student remains fully responsible for the originality, accuracy, integrity, and reproducibility of all submitted work.
A dedicated disclosure section must be included in the final thesis or dissertation. This section should clearly identify: 1) all Generative AI tools used during the document preparation, and 2) any figures or visual materials that were created using AI tools, including their purpose and scope of use.