Inspiration
We created CanvasCoPilot because, like many students, we often found ourselves overwhelmed by assignments and deadlines scattered across different courses on Canvas. We realized that with the rise of AI, there was an opportunity to integrate AI into our student workflows to help us manage our academic responsibilities more efficiently. Our main goal was to make sure we never missed another assignment or deadline again.
What it does
CanvasCoPilot acts as a 24/7 AI assistant for school. It can tell us about our assignments, deadlines, announcements, grades, and quizzes. We can even ask it general questions. It's designed to make our lives easier by saving us time managing and planning our day. For example, every morning, we could ask CanvasCoPilot what we should focus on and prioritize for that day based on upcoming assignments and deadlines.
How we built it
We built our project by integrating Flask, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, SQLite, and the APIs from OpenAI and Canvas. We utilized JavaScript, HTML, and CSS for the front-end. We hosted our local server using Flask and built our main functionality using Python and the OpenAI API. We utilized the Canvas API in order to pull user data and stored it into a local SQLite database.
Challenges we ran into
Our biggest challenge was figuring how to make API calls to Canvas quickly and efficiently. Originally, each user query would take very long since we had to make a Canvas API call for each user query. We solved this by creating an efficient database, which allowed for faster response times. Learning multiple tech stacks and integrating them together was also a steep learning curve for all of us, but we're proud of what we've achieved. Our database is fast, the UI is clean and seamless, and we've managed to bring our idea to life in a short period of time.
What we learned
We learned a lot about using a wide range of technologies, including how to make API calls and work together using Git. Looking ahead, we plan to add OAuth authentication for each user and creating a teacher-side AI assistant to help with grading and class management.
What's next for Canvas CoPilot
CanvasCoPilot is more than just a project for us; it's a solution that we, as students, will use daily. It embodies our commitment to leveraging technology to make education more manageable and efficient.
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