PathwayAI

Smart Course Selector AI Agent

Contributors: Rishikesh Kakde, Gayatri Gattani, Rutuja Jangle, Muskan Dhingra

Welcome to PathwayAI, an intelligent AI agent that simplifies the course selection journey for students through a clean, modern UI powered by OpenAI's Agent SDK.

Project Overview

Objective

An intelligent, student-centric platform that transforms the often overwhelming course selection process into a smooth, personalized experience. This system empowers students to:

Explore degree programs and professional pathways aligned with their long-term career goals (e.g., Data Scientist, Product Manager, UX Designer).
Receive goal-driven course recommendations tailored to their academic background and credit load preferences (full-time/part-time).
Gain clarity on prerequisites by conversing with the agent to understand which foundational courses are required for a desired major or advanced course.
Navigate real-world limitations like limited seat availability and high-demand course slots with intelligent alternatives and dynamic planning.
Engage in meaningful conversation with a chatbot assistant to resolve doubts, clarify academic rules, and make informed choices in real-time.

Why This Matters

Course selection is often stressful due to:

Uncertainty in aligning choices with career paths.
Limited knowledge of prerequisites or credit rules.
Fast-filling classes and limited availability.

System Architecture & Methodology
Dual-Agent Design:
- Chatbot Assistant (GPT-4o-mini): Engages students in free-form conversation to answer questions about course selection, credits, prerequisites, etc.
- Recommendation Assistant (GPT-4): Accepts structured student inputs (e.g., desired profession, major) and responds with tailored course recommendations considering prerequisites, availability, and credit load. The recommendations are shown in the format of a Visual roadmap of course progression vs career goal.
OpenAI Assistant SDK:
- Integrated using Python scripts (Agents_Chat.py) and Jupyter Notebooks (CourseSelectorAgent.ipynb, UIListCoursesAgent.ipynb).
- Threads and runs are managed via the OpenAI Assistants API, supporting persistent, contextual conversations.
Model Choice:
- GPT-4o-mini for lightweight, fast responses in chatbot interactions.
- GPT-4 for high-quality, goal-aligned, and reasoning-heavy course recommendations.

Frontend (UI)

Built with: TypeScript, using modern component-based architecture.
Hosted on: Vercel for fast deployment and seamless CI/CD.
Features:
- Clean layout to host and switch between the two AI agents.
- Input forms for structured career/course queries.
- Live chat interface for interacting with the assistant.
Key Pages:
- Landing Page
- Modern, animated hero section
- Featured degree programs
- How it works section
- Quick access to course exploration
- Explore Page
- Course catalog with filtering
- Real-time seat availability
- Course details and prerequisites
- Interactive selection system
- Degree Planning
- Visual roadmap of courses
- Semester-by-semester planning
- Progress tracking
- Prerequisite visualization
- Interactive Elements:
- AI Chatbot
- Course recommendations
- Career guidance
- Prerequisite checking
- Real-time assistance
- Course Selection
- Seat availability indicators
- Prerequisites validation
- Interactive cards with detailed info
- Progress tracking
- Smart Features:
- Availability Tracking
- Real-time seat numbers
- Filling rate visualization
- Automatic status updates (Open/Limited/Full)
- Career Alignment
- AI-powered course suggestions
- Career path optimization
- Skill gap analysis

Knowledge Base

Located in the Knowledge Base/ directory.
Contains university course PDFs for all programs offered by Luddy School to ground the agents with accurate prerequisite and curriculum knowledge.
Serves as embedded context for better reasoning and recommendations.

Future Enhancements

Course review aggregator - Integrate anonymized course reviews and ratings to help students make informed choices.
Timetable conflict detection - Detect overlapping course times and recommend conflict-free alternatives automatically.
Integration with university enrollment APIs - Integrate with institutional APIs to show real-time course availability, registration deadlines, and syllabus links.
Learning Style-based Recommendations - Recommend courses based on preferred learning methods (e.g., project-based, lecture-heavy, hands-on labs).