SUPERVISION OF DESIGN PHD STUDENTS IN AN ERA OF GENERATIVE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Year: 2024
Editor: Grierson, Hilary; Bohemia, Erik; Buck, Lyndon
Author: Caillaud, Emmanuel; Skec, Stanko
Series: E&PDE
Institution: Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, France; University of Zagreb, Croatia
Page(s): 420 - 425
DOI number: 10.35199/EPDE.2024.71
ISBN: 978-1-912254-200
ISSN: 3005-4753
Abstract
Supervising a PhD thesis implies guiding a student through the mastery of skills and competences essential for a PhD student. Upon completion of a PhD thesis, PhD student should become an autonomous researcher capable of independent research problem-solving and thinking. To do so, they should possess a wide range of abilities to proficiently employ general research methods and tools for collecting, analysing, visualising, and interpreting data. They should also be apt to communicate their research outputs through high-quality papers, presentations, etc. The supervisor should heavily support this process, by being responsible for providing domain knowledge and expertise and guiding students through research/professional development initiatives. In recent years, academic design research has experienced a paradigm shift with the emergence of various artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT. Consequently, these influences reflect on how various PhD studies are conducted and potentially indicate needs for modifying associated supervision processes. Rather than seeking to prevent PhD students from utilising such tools, supervisors should be equipping them with the knowledge to use these new resources effectively and ethically. However, to start with, supervisors themselves have to be aware of these various opportunities offered by AI research tools and be proficient in the use of AI research tools. Certainly, supervisors should serve as role models by actively engaging in their professional growth. Within that context, the incorporation of AI in the supervision process needs to be carefully explored to reap the benefits of such a modified approach in a transparent and ethical manner. This paper presents an explorative study of PhD supervision activities influenced by AI, outlining the affected skills and competences of a supervisor. The role of AI support will be examined by analysing the design research activities (literature review, data analysis, data visualisation, research communication, etc.), and recommendations will be provided on their inclusion in the PhD supervision process. For that reason, the paper delves into the specific skills and competences required by supervisors and examines how existing AI tools contribute to developing PhD students and their continuous supervision. Acknowledging the unique context of design research, the paper underlines the contextualisation of using these AI support tools for the purpose of further improving design studies. Emphasising an ethical approach, the paper suggests that AI tools should not replace the PhD student's tasks but rather serve as support, fostering the evolution of their research skills. These findings could be used for integrating AI tools in planning design research methodologies in a more structured and systematic way. By laying out individual activities and related AI-support methods and tools, the role of supervisors extends beyond teaching students to use them; they must also prepare PhD students to master forthcoming AI tools that will soon become integral to the design research landscape.
Keywords: PhD, supervision, skills