The AI Playground: A Universal Design for Learning Approach to AI Education in Engineering
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming more prevalent in all fields, especially in engineering, yet most students still have limited capabilities in terms of proper engagement with AI tools. This paper introduces a new initiative, called the AI Playground, designed to include AI education directly into the engineering curricula using a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) approach. The aim is to provide every participant no matter their background or level of education, the ability to explore AI concepts and practice problem solving with Large Language Models (LLMs), while using AI as an aid for research, coursework and industrial applications. The AI Playground was developed iteratively over one year based on community feedback, with evaluation conducted through tracking workshop attendance and participant engagement across multiple delivery styles. The initiative grew to 82 participants predominantly undergraduate engineering students, who reported that community-based learning helped them integrate AI literacy productively into their coursework. The findings demonstrate that a UDL-based, community oriented approach creates an accessible and inclusive pathway for engineering students to develop AI competence and ethical awareness.