Aydın Tiryaki (2026)
Engineering education has always been tested by the most advanced computational tools of its era. This 60-year journey is not merely a change of gadgets, but an evolution of how we measure knowledge and maintain academic integrity.
60 Years Ago: The Silent Era of the Slide Rule
For nearly 350 years, until the mid-1970s, the slide rule was the backbone of engineering. In the “golden age” often described by our professors, these mechanical instruments were used for everything from Apollo missions to massive dam projects. The greatest lesson of the slide rule was “numerical intuition.” Since it generally offered only three significant figures and left the decimal point placement to the user, an engineer had to mentally estimate the magnitude of the result. This developed a vital intuitive skill that minimized gross errors.
50 Years Ago: Scientific Calculators and the “Digital” Transition
With the introduction of devices like the HP-35 in the early 1970s, slide rules rapidly gave way to electronic calculators. My early student years coincided with this transition. While some professors banned these devices as “unfair competition,” others permitted them to focus on methodology rather than arithmetic speed. Logarithm tables became obsolete, and 12-digit precision became available at the touch of a button.
40-45 Years Ago: Programmable Calculators and the “Memory War”
By the time I was an assistant, technology had advanced to “Programmable” models. It wasn’t just the legendary Texas Instruments TI-59; the sophisticated HP-41C and Casio’s first user-friendly programmable models (like the fx-602P) were filling exam halls.
This created the first major “proctoring” crisis in universities. Constant memory allowed students to hide formulas and algorithms inside the devices. As assistants, we would patrol the halls, often relying on younger colleagues to help us “reset” unfamiliar models. During my own student days, I would enter exams with a cleared TI-59 and gamble on writing an impromptu algorithm in machine code during the exam. Coding an iterative process on the fly was a classic optimization trade-off: if done correctly, it saved immense time; if not, it was a costly distraction. This was the true use of technology as a “solution lever” rather than a cheating tool.
Artificial Intelligence: A New Paradigm Shift
The current AI crisis is a larger-scale version of the programmable calculator crisis 40 years ago. Today, physical memory cannot be “wiped,” and access is nearly impossible to block entirely. The logic of “Open Book/Open Notes” exams from the past must now apply to AI. Just as a student who hasn’t mastered the subject cannot find the right page in a book, a student who cannot “prompt” AI effectively will fail to produce a high-quality engineering solution.
Instead of resisting technology, we must encourage its use as a cognitive lever and develop new methods to measure what the student has actually learned from the process. Universities must evolve from being “enforcers” to “guides and validators.”
References and Further Reading
- Tiryaki, A. (2026). A Paradigm Shift in Higher Education: The Transparency, Verification, and Holistic Analysis Model. https://aydintiryaki.org/2026/02/07/a-paradigm-shift-in-higher-education-the-transparency-verification-and-holistic-analysis-model/Click here to read.
A Note on Methods and Tools: All observations, ideas, and solution proposals in this study are the author’s own. AI was utilized as an information source for researching and compiling relevant topics strictly based on the author’s inquiries, requests, and directions; additionally, it provided writing assistance during the drafting process. (The research-based compilation and English writing process of this text were supported by AI as a specialized assistant.)
Aydın Tiryaki 