Engineering Teachers, Postsecondary

Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts.

AI: Fully automatable - By 2025 AI can generate syllabi, homework, and handouts tailored to learning outcomes and institutional constraints with minimal human input.

Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records.

AI: Fully automatable - Maintaining attendance, grades, and records is routine administrative work that can be fully automated through LMS integration and AI-powered workflows.

Compile, administer, and grade examinations, or assign this work to others.

AI: Fully automatable - AI combined with LMS and proctoring tools can compile exams, administer them online, and auto-grade many formats or assign tasks to people, enabling end-to-end automation for typical assessments.

Compile bibliographies of specialized materials for outside reading assignments.

AI: Fully automatable - AI can search academic databases, identify and curate specialized sources, and generate organized bibliographies with minimal human input.

Conduct research in a particular field of knowledge and publish findings in professional journals, books, or electronic media.

AI: Partial - AI can assist heavily with literature review, data analysis, and manuscript drafting and can even suggest hypotheses, but cannot fully conduct, supervise, and take responsibility for original experimental or field research and ethical oversight.

Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as mechanics, hydraulics, and robotics.

AI: Partial - AI can prepare and deliver prerecorded or scripted lectures and present material via synthesized voices or slides, but lacks full real-time pedagogical judgment and adaptive classroom facilitation.

Evaluate and grade students' class work, laboratory work, assignments, and papers.

AI: Partial - AI can accurately grade objective work and provide draft feedback on essays and labs, but complex, high-stakes, or nuanced evaluations still require human judgment and oversight.

Keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, and participating in professional conferences.

AI: Partial - AI can read, summarize, and alert faculty to new literature, but cannot fully replicate the professional networking, discussion, and conference participation aspects of staying current.

Supervise undergraduate or graduate teaching, internship, and research work.

AI: Partial - AI can assist with monitoring progress, suggesting resources, and coordinating supervision tasks but cannot fully replace human mentorship, judgment, and accountability in supervision.

Supervise students' laboratory work.

AI: Partial - AI can support lab supervision through monitoring tools, safety alerts, and remote assistance, but cannot fully perform hands-on oversight or real-time complex decision-making in physical labs.

Collaborate with colleagues to address teaching and research issues.

AI: Partial - AI can facilitate collaboration by drafting documents, analyzing data, and suggesting solutions, but it cannot fully substitute for human negotiation, consensus-building, and shared decision-making.

Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, and course materials and methods of instruction.

AI: Partial - AI can generate curriculum proposals, map outcomes, and suggest instructional methods, but final evaluation, accreditation alignment, and contextual judgment require human leadership.

Initiate, facilitate, and moderate class discussions.

AI: Partial - AI can generate discussion prompts, summarize threads, and moderate online forums, but lacks the real-time social presence and nuanced pedagogical judgment of an in-person instructor.

Write grant proposals to procure external research funding.

AI: Partial - AI can draft proposal text, literature reviews, budgets, and compliance language, but cannot replace the principal investigator's original research vision, preliminary data generation, institutional negotiation, and final accountability.

Advise students on academic and vocational curricula and on career issues.

AI: Partial - AI can provide tailored course and career recommendations and simulate advising conversations, but cannot fully supplant human mentorship, deep knowledge of individual circumstances, and campus-specific navigation.

Maintain regularly scheduled office hours to advise and assist students.

AI: Partial - AI can host virtual office‑hour bots and answer routine questions asynchronously, but cannot fully replicate the mentoring, hands‑on guidance, and availability obligations of scheduled human office hours.

Select and obtain materials and supplies, such as textbooks and laboratory equipment.

AI: Partial - AI can recommend textbooks and lab equipment, compare vendors, and generate procurement lists, but procurement approvals, hands‑on evaluation, and contextual judgment typically require human oversight.

Perform administrative duties, such as serving as department head.

AI: Partial - AI can automate administrative tasks such as scheduling, reporting, and budget tracking, but cannot fully execute leadership, personnel management, and high‑stakes institutional decision‑making required of a department head.

Participate in student recruitment, registration, and placement activities.

AI: Partial - AI can automate outreach, screen candidates, and support placement matching, but cannot fully replace human engagement in recruitment events, interviews, and institution-specific placement decisions.

Serve on academic or administrative committees that deal with institutional policies, departmental matters, and academic issues.

AI: Partial - AI can analyze policies, draft documents, and model outcomes to support committees, but cannot serve as a voting representative or perform the political and interpersonal functions of committee membership.

Act as advisers to student organizations.

AI: Partial - AI can assist student organizations with planning, communications, and risk assessments, but cannot substitute for the legal oversight, mentorship, and relationship‑building provided by human advisers.

Provide professional consulting services to government or industry.

AI: Partial - AI can produce technical analyses, design work, and reports for government or industry, but cannot assume professional liability, negotiate contracts, or manage client relationships without human involvement.

Participate in campus and community events.

AI: Partial - AI can help plan, promote, and provide virtual participation assets for events but cannot genuinely attend or engage in-person community interactions and relationship-building.