Timetable Chat Bot
This was the world’s first chat bot for helping students with their timetables.
Rather than being hosted on a website, the chat bot was available via multiple messaging platforms - allowing students to access it using the apps they already had installed on their phones. The Timetable Chat Bot was available on Facebook Messenger, kik, LINE, Telegram, Twitter and Viber.
Written in Node.js and using NLP and ML, students could ask free form questions and receive an immediate response, for example:
Student: “When is the next lecture for MATH101?”
Bot: "There is a lecture for MATH101 on Tuesday at 9.00am in Roscoe Theatre A."
Student: “How do I find Roscoe Theatre A?”
Bot: “Roscoe Theatre A is located on the ground floor of the Roscoe Building. Click here for a map."
The bot was deployed at the University of Manchester for two years, but was discontinued at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic when teaching moved online.