📖 Project Story
🌟 Inspiration
As students ourselves, we’ve seen how confusing it is to transfer between universities. Each university has its own curriculum, subject codes, and credit systems. Too often, students end up repeating courses they’ve already passed, losing both time and money.
We wanted to build something that makes academic mobility transparent and fair, a tool that ensures every student’s hard work is recognised.
🎓 What it does
Equivalency Checker allows students to:
Select a Source University and a Target University. Choose specific semesters and add electives. Instantly generate a report that:
Matches courses between universities. Shows an Overall Equivalency % and a Credit Equivalency %. Lists subject-by-subject matches in a clean, printable format.
It empowers both students and universities with clear insights for credit transfer decisions.
🛠️ How we built it
Backend: Flask (Python)
Built a parser that loads syllabi in JSON format. Implemented a lightweight matching engine using fuzzy similarity + Jaccard tokens. Calculated both average equivalency and credit-weighted equivalency. Frontend: HTML, CSS, Vanilla JavaScript
A pink-themed UI for students to input details. Dynamic semester selection and elective entry. Integrated with backend APIs to fetch subjects and show reports. Data: Two real syllabi (Anna University CSE & PTU CSE).
🧩 Challenges we ran into
Handling messy JSON formats (concatenated objects, line-delimited, extra spaces). Preventing false “100%” matches when course codes didn’t align. Making the frontend dynamic (load semesters, show electives) while keeping it beginner-friendly. Debugging deployment issues (PORT binding, requirements, etc.).
🏆 Accomplishments that we're proud of
Building a working end-to-end web app in a limited hackathon time. Creating a user-friendly pink aesthetic that makes a serious tool approachable. Implementing a credit equivalency formula:
$$ CreditEquiv(\%) = \frac{\sum (credits_{source} \times match_score)}{\sum credits_{source}} \times 100 $$
Successfully deploying on GitHub and preparing for free hosting.
📚 What we learned
How to integrate frontend + backend + data in one project. The importance of data normalisation when comparing curricula. How to work under pressure as a team and balance contributions equally (50–50). The value of clear documentation and presentation in hackathons.
🚀 What's next for Equivalency Checker
Add support for more universities and branches. Enable a community-driven syllabus repository where universities can contribute JSONs. Deploy globally so that any student, anywhere, can check their course equivalency in seconds.
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