Invited Talk: Industry Mentorship in AI-Focused Final-Year Projects: Reducing Uncritical Use of Generative AI Through Authentic Learning

Description

This talk presents a project-based industry mentorship model embedded in AI-focused final-year projects at Birmingham City University. Through a structured, dialogical mentorship scheme built around live industry projects, the study examines how authentic, professionally situated tasks reduce uncritical use of generative AI among undergraduate students. The model demonstrates that when students engage with real problems under non-evaluative professional mentorship, AI-generated shortcuts become inadequate substitutes for genuine critical thinking. Evidence from student outcomes, mentor feedback and academic observations supports the transferability of the approach as a scalable framework for responsible GenAI adoption in higher education.

Period	2025
Held at	Conference on Gen-AI in the Built Environment
Degree of Recognition	National