MACC AI Workshop

On August 6, 2026, the McMaster Advanced Control Consortium (MACC) hosted a hands-on artificial intelligence workshop for its research community in JHE 326H at McMaster University. Led by Sepehr Aarabi Dahej, Steffan Ankrah, Amir Hossein Hamedi, and Farbod Maghsoudi, the session brought researchers together to explore how modern AI tools can support rigorous, efficient, and creative technical work.

The workshop began with practical foundations: how large language models work, where their capabilities are useful, and where their limitations require care. Participants examined effective prompting, source-grounded research, privacy, intellectual property, and the importance of treating AI output as a draft to be checked rather than as evidence.

Through demonstrations and guided exercises, participants explored AI-assisted literature work, coding agents, and reproducible workflows for control and optimization problems. The workshop also showed how verified research results can be developed into editable PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, and LaTeX deliverables while preserving technical accuracy and researcher ownership.

Activities like this are among the many ways MACC helps prepare its researchers for the contemporary job market and the challenges that come with it. As AI becomes part of engineering and industrial practice, researchers need more than familiarity with new software: they need the judgment to select appropriate tools, verify code and claims, protect sensitive information, communicate results clearly, and remain accountable for the final work.

By combining technical depth with responsible AI literacy, the workshop reinforced MACC's commitment to developing researchers who can adapt to changing professional expectations while continuing to solve complex problems in advanced control, process systems engineering, optimization, and data analytics.