UTD Student Financial Tracker

UTD Student Financial Tracker

Inspiration

Finances can be very difficult for college students. Many various factors can cause students to lose track of spendings and lead to inefficient budgeting. Our goal was to create a program that can help users set goals and see if they were achieving them or not. Overall, we wanted students to gain a financial advantage and be able to determine how to better save and spend based on their abilities to meet their goals.

What it does

Our program starts by collecting information about the user to determine eligibility for possible scholarships, asks users what percentage they want to allocate to distribute spending on food, transportation, entertainment, and spending, and determines their monthly goals for personal spending and overall goals for tuition. The program then compares their spending to their expected spending to categorize users as good spenders, bad spenders, etc. It also checks if they are meeting goals for tuitions and recommends scholarships to save money.

How we built it

Our project was built with a combination of Python and Prolog files. The python file data_collector.py collects data and puts it into user_data.pl. Then using scasp we run core.pl and execute commands for models and feedback. (the information in user_data.pl is included in core.pl due to the command scasp -i user_data.pl core.pl -s0 --txt).

Challenges we ran into

Our main challenge was using prolog and s(CASP) as it was something new. Other challenges would be deciding how to use input to give advice, as prolog/s(CASP) is not a straightforward language like Python or Java. We also took a bunch of time because we had to learn how to tailor each scholarship.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of being able to successfully create a program that can help UTD students achieve their financial goals. We are also proud of being able to use s(CASP) to effectively reason and allow financial help.

What we learned

We learned how to utilize s(CASP) and Python to reason and effectively come to conclusions.

What's next for UTD Student Financial Tracker

We can go more in-depth calculations to track user spending. We could possibly recommend them different methods to save too such as different housing plans or meal plans based on statistics we collect for them. We could also determine which plans would best suit their future based on their current financial status.