The Matrix: Reloaded

The landing page and main search function.
The transfer plan page.
The chatbot in action.

Inspiration

Currently, transfer students between GMU and other institutions have to use a mess of confusing transfer matrices just to figure out eligible courses and their credits. We want to help all transfer students be able to efficiently prepare for the complexities of transferring credits and their equivalencies.

What it does

The (Transfer) Matrix: Reloaded is an improvement to the currently available matrices. It collates data from over 2000 institutions across the country. Students can now search for any course and view the equivalent GMU course in one convenient, fast-loading dashboard. Students can also create a transfer plan, to check the equivalencies of multiple courses simultaneously and keep track of them more easily; a massive improvement over the existing system.

How we built it

Our team aggregated the transfer information from GMU Admission's Transfer Credit Matrix portal, creating one massive database of course information. We then leveraged Oracle APEX to implement our full-stack solution. We also utilized APEX's LLM integration to provide users with a chatbot to answer any questions they might have regarding the transfer process or quickly find answers to questions.

Challenges we ran into

Aggregating, sanitizing, and preprocessing was the biggest hurdle we had to overcome. While all the information we needed was widely and publicly available, it was dispersed and not easy to retrieve in a format that would enable us to work with it easily. There were many preprocessing steps needed. Collecting the data from the portal was also made inconvenient through the unnecessary security measures of CORS and XSS prevention.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Our teammates who developed the methods of retrieving the data from GMU's sites had their work cut out for them, and without them we would have been slaving away using more primitive methods. We also learnt how to use the APEX system to quickly develop a full stack solution and provide users with the data in minutes.

What we learned

Oracle APEX is a very powerful system, and relatively user-friendly and intuitive for first-time users to pick up.

What's next for The Matrix: Reloaded

Full web-app integration, more refined search and filter functions, and more resources to assist students with the transfer process, like GAAs and other pathways.