Week 5 Report: Alumni Portal #

Feedbacks #

This week we finalized our project structure and integrated all components to ensure a cohesive whole. On Monday, July 8th, we intend to conduct a statistical survey among students and graduates through the IU Alumni Telegram channel. Earlier attempts to conduct a survey were hindered as it did not align with the channel’s content plan for that particular week. Our project has now started a second milestone.

Previously we have conducted several surveys as mentioned in previous weeks’ reports. However, the statistical survey scheduled for the 6th week’s report marks a pivotal step in gathering specific data and insights from the alumni community.

Feedback collection plan: #

• make a Google survey (related to dea, features)
• Prepare rating scales for displaying the site to people
• Submit a survey to graduates and students
• Personally show the website to 5-10 people and get an assessment according to the compiled scales
• Compile and prepare statistics
• Create a Roadmap

Conducted user surveys or feedback sessions: #

Analyzing feedback, identifying and prioritizing issues: #

• As developers of the new alumni website, we sought external feedback from graduates to determine which features they consider most important.

The feedback highlighted the following top features:

• Guest Passes for Alumni: Graduates rated this feature as the most important. It allows alumni to access campus facilities and events, fostering a continued connection with their alma mater.

• Events for Alumni: This feature was also highly valued. Alumni expressed a strong desire for events specifically organized for them, providing opportunities for networking and reconnecting with former classmates.

• Attendance on Elective Courses: Another key feature graduates want is the ability to attend elective courses. This supports their ongoing learning and professional development.

These top features align well with our future plans to enhance alumni engagement and support through our website.

Conversely, the survey identified the following features as less significant:

• Alumni Endowment Fund: This feature received lower priority from graduates.

• Mentorship Programs: Although valuable, mentorship programs were not considered as critical by the respondents.

• Volunteering Opportunities: Similar to mentorship programs, this feature was also rated lower in importance.

While these features are still important, they will be considered in our long-term development plans rather than immediate priorities.

Roadmap: #

Progress #

This week, we focused on integrating the overall project. In previous weeks, we had distributed responsibilities so that each team member was responsible for creating their own page. This week, however, we shifted our attention to merging and combining all of our individual pages into a cohesive project. This process required significant effort and time, as we encountered various challenges typically associated with merging branches on GitHub. These challenges included resolving conflicts, ensuring consistent design and functionality across pages, and debugging integration issues. Despite these difficulties, our collaborative efforts brought us closer to a unified final product.

Changes #

We decided not to use LLM for our part of the AI ​​project because it was too slow for us (we experimented with models), and concluded that we could make it easier implementing NLP and similarity search technologies. In addition, since we have time to make the event page, we decided to integrate a simple RecSys based on similarity search and reordering events according to the user’s interests. This system is designed to tailor its suggestions to the interests of our users, recommending relevant events and activities specifically for graduates.