Project Options

Last updated August 12, 2024

There will be a total of 4 options for the entire class. Every team must choose one option. Because we have such a big class, it will be too hard to manage a different project for every team. Instead, we will have these options available acting more like project "themes", and each team can propose their own solution.

To maintain a reasonable client load, we will manage to try have about the same number of teams signed up for each project.

Three of the options are open-source and the fourth one requires an IP agreement. These projects are described below.

1. Image Aesthetics

Clients: Michael McGuffin and Adrien Gruson from École de technologie supérieure - ÉTS Montréal

Project goal: Develop an open-source web application with a database of images. Users are presented with a sequence of pairs (or triplets or small sets) of images and asked which image is more esthetically more pleasing. Examples of images from a previous aesthetic test appear at https://medium.com/@robgiampietro/a-design-judgement-test-22cacb229d19 . Questions and answers are logged, the system produces reports on the images. In addition to the web application, one algorithm (possibly using heuristics or generative AI or other methods) should be developed to generate pairs or sets of images that could be added to the database, and another algorithm (possibly using heuristics, machine learning, or other methods) should be developed to automatically determine which of a set of images is most aesthetically pleasing. The web application can potentially be customizable and adapted for asking questions involving other pairs, such as pairs of words, pairs of sentences, pairs of sounds, pairs of code snippets, etc.
Target users: An administrative user for setting up the database and questions and viewing reports on answers collected. An average adult user who answers questions presented by the system.
Technology Stack Requirement: None, but there is a preference for a simple stack with minimal dependencies on external libraries and frameworks.

2. Charity Donation

Client: Laura Ross from Kelowna Software

Project goal: Develop a web application that facilitates interaction between vendors and attendees at conventions. Instead of handing out traditional swag, vendors will use a tablet to allow attendees to sign up and donate to a designated charity. After the event, vendors can use the app to generate reports on attendees and the donations made and send customized notifications to attendees about the impact of their contributions. The app must be fully responsive and tested for various device sizes, including phones, tablets, and desktops. Additionally, gamification elements will be incorporated to encourage participation and display donations in an engaging way.
Target users: Vendors and event sponsors (e.g., trade shows, conventions, charity events) who need to manage charity lists, adjust payment settings, and view donation data. Event attendees who wish to help increase donations by providing a valid email address, name, and company name. Both vendors and attendees may have varying levels of tech experience.
Technology Stack Requirement: Frontend: Latest Angular framework with Kendo UI components. Backend: ASP.NET Core with Entity Framework (EF) Core ORM connected to an MS SQL server. The client will provide a code template, and all projects must conform to specified coding standards.

3. Insurance Policy Checks

Client: Christopher O'Sullivan from BFL Canada

Project goal: Develop a web application that helps with creating new insurance policies for customers. The app should analyze an existing insurance policy document and highlight differences between the existing policy and a newly developed policy. Various text extraction and analysis methods can be used to compare two policy documents. These differences should be presented in the app in an interface that allows the user to easily review, validate, confirm, or modify. Policy changes requested by the customer through an email thread should also be identified and incorporated into the new policy. Any discrepancies should be flagged. The focus of this project is developing a simple workflow and a good user experience. The app could potentially log the positive and negative cases found through the interaction and apply machine learning to improve the recognition of those changes in the future.
Target users: An employee of an insurance company helping a customer who has to renew or change an existing insurance policy for an asset. A manager at the company who is reviewing policy changes.
Technology Stack Requirement: Teams can choose an appropriate framework for web development. All projects need to be deployed on Microsoft Azure.

4. Transactions Querying

Client: Osahon Osemwegie from ClearJar

Project goal: Develop a web application that mines transaction data so users can ask the app questions about previous spendings and patterns. Example questions include "How much did I spend on coffee last month?", "Which store did I buy the battery charger from?", "Where can I cut down on my spendings?". The app should consider the user's querying experience, possibly by allowing both voice and text querying.
Target users: Any adult with online access to a bank account.
Technology Stack Requirement: This project requires various technologies to be used, including: NextJS React web development, plaid API https://plaid.com/ for connecting to bank transactions, pinecone https://www.pinecone.io/ for vector database, and openAI API (not chatGPT) or something similar for text processing.