NewLink

Inspiration

We were inspired by the challenges faced by new students at SFU, especially those coming from different countries. We wanted to create a platform that not only provides useful information but also fosters a sense of community. Our inspiration came from SFU Snap and the power of fine-tuned chatbots.

What it does

NewLink is like your friendly campus guide. It:

Has a chatbot powered by Llama 3 that's ready to answer all your SFU-related questions
Provides a space where students can plan small get-togethers to meet, mingle, and make friends
Lets users search for courses and get the lowdown on what they're about

How we built it

We used a combination of technologies to build NewLink:

Node.js for the backend
React.js for the frontend
Llama 3 and LangChain library for the conversation chain and our vector database which stores SFU-related information

Challenges we ran into

Getting LLM to play nice with our platform was a bit of a headache. We had some compatibility issues with LangChain libraries and Llama 3, which is still pretty new. Plus, using LangChain with Node.js was trickier than with Python. We spent a lot of time on Stack Overflow figuring things out.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud of successfully integrating an LLM model into our application and providing it with enough context to address a specific social problem at SFU - the lack of social engagement. We've also implemented features like course search, event announcements, and a platform for students to connect. This has resulted in an immersive user experience when interacting with the AI model in our chatroom and using the other features of our app.

What we learned

We learned about the workflow required to integrate LLMs with popular backend libraries like Node.js. We also improved our skills in using Tailwind for UI design, which is a crucial aspect of Hackathons. Additionally, we learned a lot about resolving issues with Github, especially when dealing with branch conflicts and version incompatibilities during merges.

What's next for NewLink

We have several plans for the future of NewLink:

Improve our chatbot's performance
Design a more appealing and user-friendly UI
Deploy our website for public usage, provided the AI is powerful and safe enough
Expand the scope of our chatbot to cover more topics and provide more detailed responses
Introduce a feature for users to share their experiences and tips for navigating life at SFU