Harnessing AI: GSD Virtual Town Hall Examines Technology’s Role in Teaching, Learning, and Practice
Each year, the Harvard Graduate School of Design’s Development and Alumni Relations Office hosts a Virtual Town Hall that brings together alumni and friends with Dean Sarah Whiting and other thought leaders to examine critical issues across design and planning fields of study and practice. Every Town Hall centers on a distinct design-related theme and fosters a wide-ranging dialogue that reflects the GSD community’s diverse interests.
Nearly 300 GSD alumni and friends from thirty-nine countries came together on February 13, 2026, for the sixth Virtual Town Hall, “Technology, Design, and Pedagogy,” to open a forward-thinking conversation about how rapidly evolving digital technologies—especially generative AI—are reshaping design education and professional practice. Participants ranged from graduates of the 1960s to the present, representing every core discipline at the GSD and underscoring the relevance of this year’s theme as these tools continue to transform the design landscape.
Framed by the recognition that industry is moving at lightspeed, Dean Sarah M. Whiting, Josep Lluís Sert Professor of Architecture, and faculty panelists examined how the School can critically engage these innovations while sustaining the fundamentals of design education—extending the work of the designer’s brain, eye, and hand.
Dean Whiting convened three GSD faculty members pushing the boundaries of AI and design for a series of presentations and a stimulating discussion.
Panelists:
- Martin Bechthold DDes ’01, Kumagai Professor of Architectural Technology and Academic Dean
- Humbi Song AB ’13, MArch ’19, DDes ’27, Visiting Faculty, Instructor in Architecture
- Eric Rodenbeck, Visiting Faculty, Lecturer in Architecture
Watch the video to see how AI is influencing the way we teach, learn, and practice at the GSD. Explore how student and faculty work can be assisted by cutting-edge tools. Learn more about the School’s responsibility to cultivate ethical literacy around technology, and how this mandate emphasizes acknowledgment, authorship, boundaries, and collaboration. Hear how no algorithm can substitute for the fundamentals: spatial reasoning, critical thinking, ethical judgment, and the ability to assess and interpret outcomes. Together, these thought‑provoking perspectives underscore the urgent need to consider how to integrate technology into design pedagogy ethically and responsibly in order to equip students to harness these tools for meaningful impact on communities, cultures, and the planet.