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<p xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" class="first" dir="auto" id="d18856e143">This project is about a student competition designed to address real-world challenges in the offshore wind energy sector. The competition introduced operational challenges facing the industry, including reduced maintenance costs and environmental effects of construction processes. Developed in collaboration between Teesside University and RWE as the industrial partner, the initiative aimed to bridge academic learning with critical thinking outcomes. Students were placed into highly diverse teams—across disciplines, backgrounds, and learning styles—to replicate real-world engineering environments and promote inclusive collaboration. <p xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" dir="auto" id="d18856e145"/><p xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" dir="auto" id="d18856e146">The use of AI as a learning tool was acknowledged in the competition. While many students now rely on AI tools in their studies, the competition was structured to encourage forms of creativity and critical thinking that extend beyond what AI can produce. Students were required to justify decisions, negotiate ideas, and iteratively test solutions through hands-on model-building and collaborative problem-solving, encouraging original thinking. As a part of the assessments, students were asked to explain how AI is used to help them develop ideas and distinguish between AI generated ideas and their novel ideas. <p xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" dir="auto" id="d18856e148"/><p xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" dir="auto" id="d18856e149">The student outcomes showed that interactive, hands-on tasks maintained high engagement and stimulated creative problem-solving. Interestingly, the best ideas generated were those collected information from a wide range of resources, including AI and used original thinking to propose the solution. Insights from continuous observation, quizzes, and one-to-one discussions informed a more responsive and inclusive teaching approach, demonstrating that even in an AI-rich learning environment, educational experiences can successfully cultivate human creativity, critical thinking, and teamwork.