In the winter semester of the 2024/2025 academic year, I had the pleasure and honor of leading another edition of Projekt Innowacje at the Lodz University of Technology. This edition was particularly groundbreaking for me – for the first time in the history of the project, I decided on an experiment that changed the way students learn programming. I decided to give them access to the best AI tools from the very beginning and observe how this would affect their development. Watching students discover new possibilities thanks to cooperation with AI was an extraordinary experience for me, which reminded me anew how fundamental cooperation and knowledge sharing are in our industry.
This semester showed me that AI is a catalyst that allows us to focus on understanding concepts instead of hours spent debugging. Students learned to communicate with AI, evaluate its suggestions, and consciously decide when to accept them. Thanks to this, as a mentor, I could adapt the learning pace to students’ skills and provide individual help when problems were encountered, while observing how they discover new ways of solving programming tasks.
Tech Stack
The tech stack I chose for this edition included Vue 3, Vite, Vue Router, Vuetify/Tailwind CSS, Pinia, Firebase, and Vue I18n. Additionally, I showed students alternatives they could use in future projects: Supabase (open-source with SQL), AWS Amplify (for enterprise), and Convex (reactive backend).
The most important, however, were the AI tools that became an integral part of the learning process: GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Windsurf, and Roo Code. Each of these tools brought something unique to the education process, allowing students to discover new possibilities and experiment with different approaches to solving programming problems.
Program and Key Areas
We went through the full path from basics to advanced concepts, starting from the foundations of web development. I dedicated the first meetings to understanding the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, as well as an introduction to Git/GitHub, VS Code, and GitHub Copilot.
In the styling section, students learned when to use ready-made components from Vuetify and when to apply a utility-first approach with Tailwind CSS. This part of the project required them to think about design and user experience, which is invaluable in today’s technology world.
Pinia served us for global application state management. AI helped design the architecture of stores, which showed students how AI tools can be used to support the design process, not just generate code. This part of the project required them to think architecturally and understand how to structure the application so that it is scalable and easy to maintain.
Firebase was the first contact with backend-as-a-service for many students. We worked on authentication, Firestore, hosting, and real-time synchronization between users. Seeing students move from thinking about the backend as their own server to understanding a cloud-first approach was fascinating and reminded me how important it is to open new perspectives in education.
Multilingualism with Vue I18n included automatic generation of translation files by AI. Thanks to this, students could create applications accessible to a wider range of users, which is invaluable in today’s global technology world.
AI Tools in the Learning Process
The most important element of this edition were the AI tools that became an integral part of the learning process. GitHub Copilot proved to be great for learning patterns through inline suggestions while writing, allowing students to discover new ways of solving problems. Cursor – an AI-first editor – enabled editing multiple files simultaneously through simple descriptions of changes, which showed students how AI can be effectively used for refactoring and code reorganization.
Windsurf helped in architectural decisions and detected security problems, which was invaluable for students learning to design applications. Roo Code, knowing framework-specific patterns and optimizations, showed students how to use specialized AI tools to solve specific technical problems.
AI in Development – Conclusions
Watching how students use AI tools allowed me to draw several key conclusions. Advantages included the speed of code generation, which accelerated the development process, the possibility of comparing different solutions and experimenting with approaches, as well as support for beginners, which built their confidence in their first programming steps.
However, I also noticed challenges we had to face. The risk of over-reliance on AI could lead to the loss of independent thinking skills, potential security issues required code verification, and the necessity of critical assessment of code quality was fundamental, as AI does not always generate optimal solutions.
I am deeply convinced that the key principle is: always understand the code before accepting, treat AI like a junior requiring supervision. This principle accompanied us throughout the semester and showed students how important critical thinking is even in the era of AI.
Student Projects
Students created complete web applications that showed how AI tools can be effectively used in practice.
Each of these projects was unique and showed the students’ individual approaches to solving problems, which was particularly satisfying for me as a mentor. Watching students use AI tools to support their own thinking rather than replace it was fascinating and reminded me how important education and a conscious approach to new technologies are.
Challenges
The main challenges we had to face included architectural complexity – moving from basics of web development to advanced concepts required a change in thinking about application structure. Working with AI tools was another area that required time and patience, as students had to learn how to effectively communicate with AI and evaluate its suggestions.
One of the most difficult elements was teaching students that AI is a tool that supports, not replaces, one’s own thinking. Students who relied solely on AI encountered difficulties, while those who treated AI as a tool supporting their own thinking achieved great results. This lesson was an invaluable value for future engineers.
Prompt engineering proved to be a new competence as important as programming itself. Communication with AI required students to precisely formulate questions and expectations, which developed their analytical thinking skills. Code review became key – with AI generating code quickly, evaluation of quality, security, and maintainability becomes fundamental.
The variety of tools showed that each AI tool has its strengths: GitHub Copilot for inline suggestions, Cursor for refactoring, Windsurf for architecture. BaaS democratizes full-stack – Firebase, Supabase, and others lower the entry barrier, allowing students without backend knowledge to build complete applications.
Personal Reflections
Watching the learning process of my students and seeing them overcome consecutive programming challenges was a great satisfaction for me. The winter edition of Projekt Innowacje 2024/2025 showed that AI-First Development is the present, not the future. Students are pioneers of a new era of programming – they can effectively use AI, understand when to trust it, know modern BaaS platforms, and have experience with full-stack development.
I am deeply convinced that participating in such projects brings huge benefits not only in the context of learning specific technologies but above all in developing thinking like engineers – translating business requirements into technical architecture and consciously making decisions about trade-offs. In the field of programming, cooperation and knowledge sharing should form the foundation of our industry, and Projekt Innowacje is a perfect example of how this can be achieved.
The most important lesson I learned from this edition is: AI does not change the fundamental truth about programming – success requires understanding, practice, and continuous learning. AI is a powerful tool, but it is the human who decides what they want to achieve and how to evaluate the result. The future is human + AI = super developer – not AI instead of a human, but AI as an enhancement of human creativity and problem-solving abilities.
Summary
The winter edition of Projekt Innowacje 2024/2025 showed that students learned not only specific technologies but above all thinking like engineers – translating business requirements into technical architecture and consciously making decisions about trade-offs. Working with AI tools sometimes required more time for practical examples, and some projects were too ambitious – the lesson of prioritization was difficult but necessary and taught students how important realistic planning is in technological projects.
I would like to thank all the students who took part in this edition for their commitment, curiosity, and determination in overcoming subsequent challenges. I also thank the organizers of Projekt Innowacje at the Lodz University of Technology for the opportunity to share knowledge and experience with young programmers. I invite everyone interested in web technologies and AI to explore Vue, Firebase, and AI tools – they are fascinating tools that open doors to advanced web applications and new possibilities in programming.
