Trailblazer Chat Bot

Trailblazer Chat Bot Sequence Diagram
Lambda Function Code that Queries our MySQL DB hosted on RDS
Trailblazer Chat Bot Architecture
Utterances Used to Train the Model

Inspiration

College can be incredibly stressful at times, especially when you're studying for midterms and finals.

What it does

This chat bot queries ALL the trails in Fairfax County and returns the nearest trails of the length specified by the user.

How we built it

We used Amazon Lex as the chat bot front end and then used an AWS Lambda Function to both delegate and ask the user for information that is validated before being used to query a MySQL database hosted on AWS RDS and return a message to the Amazon Lex chat bot.

Challenges we ran into

Connecting the Lambda function to the chat bot, parsing the request, and constructing the response were major painpoints as none of us knew how to interact or construct JSON objects before this and the AWS documentation was lacking.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Was able to stand up a MySQL database on AWS RDS, and was able to successfully query the database using an AWS Lambda function's logic.

What we learned

How to stand up an MySQL database on RDS, how to interact with and construct JSON objects, how to code in python, how to query databases with python and Lambda functions (and query databases in general), how to navigate the AWS console, and how to create and train a chat bot to answer specific user requests.

What's next for Trailblazer Chat Bot

We plan on making this a Facebook Messenger app that all students can use, as well as extending this to nearby events, both on- and off-campus, that students can attend to further destress.

Built With

Submitted to

Patriot_Hacks

Created by

I worked on creating the lambda function! It was very challenging but very fun and ultimately rewarding. I grew a lot in a short amount of time.

Maria Camila Castro Suarez
Aspiring Computer Scientist Always Looking to Try Something New |GHC 2023| GMU Computer Science 2025 |
I worked on the front end creating the chatbot, linking the lambda function to the chatbot as well. It was very challenging at first but I learned something new which was awesome.

McKenzie Young
I helped brainstorm the idea with the team. Worked on making a trailblazer page where I added the messenger app and code using GitHub. I’m still working on the messenger chatbot and how to deploy it. It was changing yet fun still more to learn. :)

Sadia Mou
Elizabeth Machuca