Canvas Assistant

dashboard
statistics
AI chat
pomodoro

About the Project

Inspiration This project was inspired by the need for a smarter, more efficient way to manage coursework and track academic progress. As students, we often found it challenging to stay organized and visualize our academic data. We wanted to create a tool that not only helped with task management but also provided insightful analytics to help students make data-driven decisions about their study habits.

What We Learned Through this project, we learned the power of integrating object-oriented principles in modern web development. Specifically, the use of Smalltalk-inspired components taught us how to design modular, reusable, and flexible visualization components. We also gained deeper experience with Canvas LMS, OAuth authentication, and integrating AI (Google Gemini) for content summarization.

How We Built It We built the project using a Next.js frontend, FastAPI backend, and the Google Gemini API for AI-powered content summaries. The visualizations were created using Smalltalk’s principles of object-oriented programming, encapsulation, and polymorphism, ensuring that components are flexible and reusable. We incorporated responsive design to ensure it works across all devices.

Challenges Faced One of the biggest challenges was implementing the Smalltalk-inspired visualization components. Designing them to be modular, yet flexible enough for multiple chart types, required a deep understanding of object-oriented principles. Additionally, integrating the Canvas OAuth authentication and ensuring smooth data flow between the frontend and backend was tricky but rewarding.