Arthur Acenas

Keeping it 100 With My Use Of AI In ICS 314

09 May 2025

I. Introduction

Artificial Intelligence has already become a staple in many developers’ toolkits when it comes to software engineering. Just as engineers use pencils, or artists use paintbrushes, AI is just another tool in the bag for developers and programmers to use at their disposal. For me, I have always found AI being a better programmer than I am very useful. Since August 2023, when I entered college, one of the first programs I signed up for was ChatGPT. It has been by my side ever since and has helped with in coding, writing drafts, and even making cheat sheets I can use for tests the same day I take them! ChatGPT, along with GitHub Co-Pilot, are buddies of mine that have helped me get through my toughest challenges, especially in ICS 314.

II. Personal Experience with AI

This past Spring semester in ICS 314, I had the idea of letting AI take the backseat this time around, as I wanted to fully grasp the ideas and concepts of software engineering for myself as I went into the course. This is how I used AI in the following course elements:

  1. Experience WODs - Starting a WOD, I took the wheel and drove through the assignment as much as I could up until my car (me) started having troubles. Only then, I would reach out to ChatGPT for roadside assistance in order get my wheels back on the road and finish the rest of the WOD.
  2. In-class Practice WODs - ChatGPT helped me whenever I was stuck at a certain step of a practice WOD. I would say that I mostly used it in the middle of doing a WOD, with me starting and finishing the practice as best as I could, again only letting it take the backseat.
  3. In-class WODs - AI was a big help in helping me complete the in-class WODs. But in all honesty, I’ve declared these in-class practices as my least favorite part of the course and found it not very valuable of my time. I found myself letting ChatGPT do most of the work in order to cut me some time and not have to sit in the classroom stuck with the risk of getting a “DNF” on my card.
  4. Essays - At the end of all my essays, I explicity write “* ChatGPT used for grammar.” The essay instructions tell us to indicate whether AI was used and how it was used, and I do all the writing myself and only ever use ChatGPT at the end to help correct my grammar, check my spelling, as well as better ways to connect or structure sentences.
  5. Final project - GitHub Co-Pilot was a tool I had only started for the final project. I wish I had known that it was just a simple extension to install on VSCode, as I had to keep switching windows back to ChatGPT to ask about my code. Co-Pilot, along with ChatGPT, were my biggest help in ensuring I contributed to the project to the best of my abilities.
  6. Learning a concept / tutorial - When it came to learning concepts or doing tutorials, I wanted to make sure I limit my use of AI in order to fully understand the things I was learning. Websites that had the whole tutorial laid out for me were there for me to do on my own, not let AI do it for me because I choose not to learn.
  7. Answering a question in class or in Discord - I used AI at the discretion of my professor, especially whenever he said something like “ask your favorite AI about this question then read aloud what it says.” Most people didn’t feel like answering questions from the professor in class, even when he literally tells us to ask Google or AI, so I just did what was necessary to answer.
  8. Asking or answering a smart-question - Did not use AI as I had very little interactions in the #smart_questions channel. I only ever answered basic, simple questions.
  9. Coding example e.g. “give an example of using Underscore .pluck” - When we started using npm, I had to reach out to ChatGPT for help, since it was my first time actively using the console when coding in an IDE. When we started learning databases, there were all these different commands that had different purposes that I just couldn’t memorize, but ChatGPT helped me with which commands to run whenver I needed help creating or dropping a database.
  10. Explaining code - I actually never really asked ChatGPT or GitHub Co-Pilot to “explain what this code means.” I guess my comprehension of code is better than my ability to write it.
  11. Writing code - This was a huge role ChatGPT and GitHub Co-Pilot played ever since I entered college in August 2023. I thought I had developed enough coding skills in my sophomore and junior year of high school, but with a one-year break from computer science, and college rolling around, my coding skills took a dive and I was pretty much back at square one. ChatGPT, along with Claude and DeepSeek in Spring 2025, have been the ghostwriter to majority of my coding assignments in ICS. I mean, in this day in age, it’s not like I’d get shunned for it. I bet you 99% of ICS students since 2023 have had AI be their ghostwriters in their coding assignments, too.
  12. Documenting code - Writing comments on my code was not really something I tasked AI with, as I wanted to be able to understand it myself. It’s like how it’s better to write your notes than copy off someone else. You’ll have an easier time knowing what you write down.
  13. Quality assurance e.g. “What’s wrong with this code __” or “Fix the ESLint errors in __” - ChatGPT and even GitHub Co-Pilot are not perfect, and so I would get some errors here and there. I made sure ChatGPT knew what errors I was facing and what steps I should take in resolving them. Co-Pilot was more useful and a lot more convenient as it could fix errors in my code at the click of a button.
  14. Other uses in ICS 314 not listed - Everything about my AI use in ICS 314 has been addressed in the elements above.

III. Impact on Learning and Understanding

When it came to my personal learning experience, AI had really enhanced my understanding more than I thought it would. The technology has become so advanced that it’s a better teacher than most people, and I had a better time understanding all the different UI frameworks and other key concepts taught in software engineering.

IV. Practical Applications

AI is definitely a good tool for when you need to draft ideas or get started on an project. Whenever your stuck with something like writing a lab report, which I did in Fall 2024 for physics, a program like ChatGPT is useful when you are having difficulties learning the concepts of a lab.

V. Challenges and Opportunities

Even at this stage, artificial intelligence is not perfect. It is bound to make mistakes, which can lead to it correcting them, then end up making more mistakes. This happened a lot when I used it for writing code, where errors would pop up and I’d task ChatGPT with resolving it. ChatGPT would try its best to resolve the error but would just make these more incorrect, so there is definitely a lot of room for improvement when it comes to the advancement of AI, especially on the software engineering side of things.

VI. Comparative Analysis

Traditional learning methods, such as note-taking, textbook reading, and reaching out for help will stand the test of time. AI has pretty much taken over the world at this point, but when it comes to methods of learning, the best way to learn something is by doing. The way I see it and the way I have been doing it, is its always best to do the note-taking and reviewing the resources yourself, then only ever using ChatGPT for help with homework, asking it about how to approach a problem and the steps necessary rather than just giving you the answer. You retain knowledge a lot better when you do things yourself, which I came to learn when I overrelied on AI in classes like ICS 211 and Calculus 2.

VII. Future Considerations

When it comes to the future role of AI in software engineering education, think AI is going to keep playing a bigger role in software engineering education. Tools like ChatGPT and GitHub Co-Pilot will probably become even more common in classes. I can see future assignments actually requiring AI use or teaching us how to work with AI the right way. But I also think it’s really important that we don’t forget the basics. Learning how to solve problems on your own is still super valuable, and AI shouldn’t replace that. It should just be there to help when you’re stuck, not do everything for you.

VIII. Conclusion

Overall, using AI in ICS 314 helped me a lot. It saved time, gave me good ideas, and helped me understand things better when I was stuck. But it also reminded me that relying on it too much can hurt your learning. I learned it’s best to use AI as a tool, not as a crutch. When you do most of the work yourself and just use AI to guide you, you end up learning way more. I think AI is great for school, as long as you use it the right way.