⚠️ The Problem
Planning semester courses can be overwhelming, especially for freshman students, primarily due to the limitations of current planning tools and the inconsistent availability of advisors. Tools like the "What-If report" feature only provide the courses needed to take, without advising the student when they should complete the course. This “when” aspect is important, because certain courses require prerequisites and should be sequenced in appropriate order: the prerequisites before the courses. Additionally, many students encounter barriers to accessing timely guidance from advisors; for instance, one team member faced significant frustration when their advisor was unavailable for an entire year, underscoring a systemic issue in advisor accessibility. This combination of generalized academic plans and inconsistent support leads to increased anxiety as students struggle to meet graduation requirements, ultimately detracting from their college experience and future readiness.
💡 The Solution
Courseflow is a personalized platform allowing students to input unique major and minor combinations, the time they desire to graduate in, and the amount of credits they’d prefer per semester. Our website then outputs a semester by semester plan. Our team used a web scraping technique to aggregate the required courses for engineering majors and minors, and used this data to create the semester by semester plan. By consolidating essential information and providing tailored recommendations, Courseflow empowers students to make informed decisions and take control of their academic paths, reducing stress and maximizing their college experience.
🛠️ Our Technology
We used web scraping, AI-driven processing, and cloud deployment to develop a seamless and accessible academic planning platform. Our integration allows students to effortlessly generate personalized course roadmaps with AI-driven optimization, eliminating the need for time-consuming manual searches across multiple resources. This approach ensures scalability and accessibility, allowing the platform to adapt with various device sizes, from smartphones to desktop computers, providing users with a consistent and responsive experience.
BeautifulSoup (Python) – Used to efficiently extract data on all Penn State majors, minors, and professors from trusted sources like the Penn State Bulletin and RateMyProfessors, ensuring accurate course planning.
Gemini API – Processed the gathered data alongside user preferences to generate personalized academic roadmaps, helping students navigate their unique major and minor combinations with ease.
Streamlit – Developed an interactive web application that allows users to input their academic details and receive a clear semester-by-semester plan in seconds.
Koyeb – Deployed the platform on a scalable cloud hosting service, ensuring seamless performance and accessibility across all devices, from smartphones to desktops.
🚧 Challenges and Solutions
During the development of our program, we faced several significant challenges that tested our technical skills and problem-solving abilities. One major hurdle was integrating the Gemini API, particularly in processing large volumes of data, which required careful optimization for smooth functionality. Additionally, retrieving reviews from RateMyProfessors through the API presented complexities due to outdated APIs, leading us to resort to web scraping instead. This approach, however, introduced its own issues, as BeautifulSoup initially failed to extract valid data. Consequently, we had to pivot to using cURL and other web scraping methods to obtain the necessary information. Finally, getting the domain up and running involved troubleshooting various deployment issues to ensure our website was accessible and operational across all platforms. Overcoming these challenges not only strengthened our team's collaboration but also deepened our understanding of the technologies we employed.
🏆 Achievements that we are proud of
We are proud to have effectively optimized the course scheduling process for students in 24 hours. Traditionally, students spend over an hour piecing together their semester schedules by manually searching through the bulletin, LionPath, and the Gen Ed planner—only to end up with more unanswered questions. Our product curates a full academic plan in just seconds. By instantly providing a structured roadmap for major and minor combinations, we save students countless hours and help them stay on track for graduation with confidence.
✅ What we learned
Throughout the development of our program, we gained valuable skills and knowledge that significantly enhanced our technical capabilities. First and foremost, we learned essential Git commands, which improved our collaboration and version control as we worked on the project. Additionally, we delved into web scraping techniques using BeautifulSoup, gaining hands-on experience in extracting data from websites, which proved crucial for our data-gathering efforts. We also expanded our skill set by learning to use Bash and cURL, which allowed us to efficiently handle various command-line tasks and troubleshoot issues with web scraping. These experiences not only deepened our understanding of the technologies we used but also fostered a collaborative environment where we could support each other's learning and growth.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.