Inspiration
At Oberlin, due to the large amounts of requests for peer tutoring services, it takes quite a while for students to receive their tutoring assignment. After an interaction with an assistant dean, we discovered that the entire assignment system consists of only two separate Excel spreadsheets; with which, an administrator would have to read through the cells, and manually match tutors to tutees. In response to this, our team set out to create Tutor Tots – an efficient web tool that could expedite the process for college administrators, allowing students to be connected to their peer tutors as soon as possible.
What it does
The web tool takes in tutor’s and tutee information using Wix’s forms and collections (database) features. Using an array of different engines, the web tool computes and assigns tutees to tutors using an algorithm that would produce the best possible match. After computation, it then outputs the results in a human readable way.
How we built it
Frontend: Designed a website on Wix to solicit tutor application and tutee sign up. Backend: From the Wix database, collect two separate CSV files (one for Tutor’s information, and one for Tutee’s information). It is then parsed from the .csv file into a workable Python object (dictionary). From the Python object, calculate the constants needed to initiate tutor-tutee assignment and write a .lp file (used by the Gurobi optimizer). Gurobi would then run on that lp file to produce a .sol file. The .sol file is then parsed to create a text file that represents the solutions (a.k.a. Tutor–tutee assignments) in a human readable and meaningful way.
Challenges we ran into
Without access to the Wix server, we could not host the entire project on the website itself, and had to break it off into smaller separate processes (So it’s technically not a “web” tool, yet). Due to a bug at the very end of the project, tutortots.py does not run even when each individual parts are correctly implemented and tested.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We created a ghost tutor object to display students who could not/have not been assigned a tutor.
What we learned
How to use set up databases for the purpose of data processing
What's next for Tutor Tots
With the appropriate resources, we hope that we could host TutorTots on a server of our own and fully integrate all steps of the process so that the administrator won’t have to take any additional steps. We also want to redesign the website to include a landing page, an About Us, a Blog (for community members). We will expand the web tool to be able to handle matching more preferences (preferred working times
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