CMU PathFinder: AI for Personalized Academic Guidance

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  Your path is in sight!

Inspiration

At CMU-Africa, students often struggle to align their academic choices with their career goals due to limited personalized guidance. This misalignment leads to stress, suboptimal course selection, and difficulties in planning a successful career path. While academic advisors provide valuable support, they may not always offer the tailored advice needed for each student’s unique aspirations. This gap in support can leave students feeling overwhelmed and disconnected from their long-term objectives.

About CMU PathFinder

CMU PathFinder is an AI-powered app designed to bridge this gap by offering continuous, personalized guidance for academic planning. Students using the app can set their career goals, and the app provides tailored recommendations for courses that align with their aspirations. CMU PathFinder also helps students manage their workload with strategies for balancing academic responsibilities and personal well-being. By offering timely advice and tracking progress, the app empowers students to make informed decisions, reduce stress, and stay focused on their long-term goals.

How we built it

CMU PathFinder is still in its development phase. It is designed with a focus on user needs and practical AI integration. We created a detailed prototype and mockups to illustrate how the app will function and appear. These prototypes were developed using Figma, which allowed us to visualize the user interface and flow of the app.

Challenges we ran into

One major challenge was securing interviews with more staff and faculty participants due to their tight schedules and other commitments.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We were able to illustrate a detailed and user-friendly prototype with core functionalities.

What we learned

1. The importance of iterative design and user feedback in creating a functional and effective prototype.
2. The challenge of scheduling interviews highlighted the need for flexibility and proactive planning in project management.

What's next for CMU PathFinder

1. Refining the prototype based on ongoing user feedback,
2. Full development and implementation of the app.
3. Integrating with the Student Information Online platform (SIO platform) to extend the benefit to other campuses.

Built With

• figma