Internship report: Education Recommender Bot
July 1st, 2021As part of his internship for Applied Computer Science (Specialisation AI) at Thomas More Hogeschool Geel, Brecht Noyens developed a chatbot that helps future students select the most appropriate field of study based on their interests.
Architecture
The chatbot was built with Microsoft Bot Framework Composer and published on Azure. Education data from onderwijskiezer.be was scored across aspects like science, mathematics, politics, and statistics. The recommendation engine runs as a Python Azure Function, connected to an Azure database. The bot collects user preferences through conversation, then calls the recommendation API to suggest matching fields of study.
Extensions
The bot supports both Dutch and English. A QnA Maker service was integrated so users can ask general questions during the conversation. A speech-to-text feature was added using Azure Speech Services. The final product combines adaptive questioning, a solid recommendation engine, and multilingual support in a single conversational interface. — Brecht Noyens, Thomas More Geel
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