Do We Still Need Architects in the Age of AI?
The IEEE North Saskatchewan Section Computer Chapter is pleased to host a special technical talk by Dr. Rick Kazman, from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. In this timely and thought-provoking session titled "Do We Still Need Architects in the Age of AI?", Dr. Kazman will explore how large language models (LLMs) are reshaping the architectural design process—and what this means for the future of both human and machine collaboration in creative professions.
📅 Date: Thursday, October 16, 2025
🕓 Time: 4:30 – 6:00 PM
📍 Location: Engineering Building, Room 2C01, University of Saskatchewan
🎟 Admission: Free for students | $5 IEEE members | $10 non-members
☕ Light refreshments provided | Open to students, faculty & industry
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- 57 Campus Drive
- Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
- Canada
- Building: Engineering Building
- Room Number: 2C01
- Starts 29 September 2025 02:00 AM UTC
- Ends 16 October 2025 11:00 PM UTC
- Admission fee ?
Speakers
Dr. Rick Kazman
Do We Still Need Architects in the Age of AI?
In this talk I will begin by reviewing what it is that an architect does in practice. I then look at how AI can support and augment some of an architect's duties and knowledge. In particular I will describe two empirical studies on how LLMs can assist in the design process. The first study investigated the ability of LLMs to generate and select architectural design concepts. The second study explored an LLM-assisted architecture design process. The overall conclusion is that LLMs are not, by themselves, good architects. Human architects are still essential. But AI can help in some important ways. Human architects can leverage LLMs for tasks like divergent thinking, generating design options, and generating documentation, ultimately leading to a more effective and collaborative design process.
Biography:
Rick Kazman is the Danny and Elsa Lui Distinguished Professor of Information Technology Management at the University of Hawaii. His research interests are software architecture, design and analysis tools, and technical debt. Kazman has been involved in the creation of several influential methods and tools for architecture analysis, including the Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method and the Titan and DV8 tools. He is the author of over 250 publications, co-author of three patents and nine books, including Software Architecture in Practice, Technical Debt: How to Find It and Fix It, Designing Software Architectures: A Practical Approach, and Ultra-Large-
Kazman received a B.A. (English/Music) and M.Math (Computer Science) from the University of Waterloo, an M.A. (English) from York University, and a Ph.D. (Computational Linguistics) from Carnegie Mellon University. How he ever became a researcher in software engineering is anybody’s guess. When not doing architecture things, Kazman may be found cycling, singing acapella music, gardening, or playing the piano.