Northeastern Advising Assistant

Role: UX Designer
Date: March 23-24 2019
Collaborators: Pratibha Sridhar Iyengar, Saran Tejas Kaja, Siddhant Sanjiv Sapte
Purpose: Husky Hackathon (D’Amore McKim Business School with IBM and State Street) - 24 Hour Event

Goal: Create a virtual assistant utilizing AI technology to help alleviate the NU Shuffle

The prompt for the first annual Husky Hackathon was to create anything to solve a problem in the Northeastern community with the help of an IBM Watson software and pitch it in a business presentation. We utilized IBM Watson Assistant software for the functionalities of our application.

Pratibha, Saran, and Siddhant worked on the front-end and back-end development, while I worked on the UX design, prototype, and final presentation pitch.

The Problem

The “NU Shuffle” is the phrase coined to describe students getting shuffled around to different advisors in different departments to look for an answer at Northeastern. This was a problem I recently personally experienced: I had a question about taking a course abroad, and I was referred to my academic advisor, then to my GEO advisor, and then to various faculty, and it was very tough getting a straight answer for a relatively simple question.

Scheduling appointments at Northeastern is a hassle. Advisors are often booked for weeks straight. It can take up to a whole month to speak to a person face-to-face.

There is very little cross-department communication, and it’s not uncommon for a student to be referred to several different people on a treasure hunt for answers. 

Pain points

• delayed response time

• low personalized answers

• lots of shuffling around before getting the answer you need

Our Solution

A seamless all-in-one place to start for all your questions:

• chatbot answers questions immediately

• connects user to the correct academic, co-op, or GEO advisor for further inquiries

• more than just a chatbot:

  • faculty/advisor directory

  • student advisor program