“CODE IT” CATEGORY [Jinx takes the stage.]

askPitt | Overview askPitt is a virtual assistant (named “Tob”), designed to make finding Pitt resources fast, simple, and friendly. askPitt mitigates the problem of finding straightforward responses from Pitt’s many sites and apps by answering commonly asked questions directly, or linking to an appropriate resource. “How busy is Towers laundry right now?” “When’s the last day to waitlist a class?” “How do I connect my Xbox to the wifi?” On mobile devices, askPitt is compatible with any device that has access to Facebook Messenger or Slack. Coming soon to Amazon Alexa!

askPitt | Marketing Summary Target market: Our app is especially useful to new undergraduates with many questions about the university, but is helpful for all Pitt students. Pitch: Straightforward interface: askPitt is what you need when you need it, without a cluttered interface to provide all its utilities. Novelly useful: Draws on many resources to synthesize answers to a wide variety of questions, including some which aren’t answered anywhere else. Accessible: Available on any smartphone (or device) with Facebook Messenger or Slack. Bot: It’s an intuitive chatbot that learns from experience. Fast turnaround: We can quickly update responses to add new functionality, or correct answers..

askPitt | Technology Summary Technologies API.ai Facebook (and its location services), Slack, Alexa Heroku, AWS Lambda (for hosting) PittAPI Google Places and Calendar Beautiful Soup (and many other Python packages) Many additional university services The Future Though it’s functionality is very extensive, currently askPitt only interfaces with a limited number of university resources, and we plan to continue extending it greatly. Fortunately, any changes we make to the software can be made live immediately, without any updating by the user. To view current functionality, what we’re working on, and provide feedback, visit askpitt.me

askPitt | Video Submission Upload a video showing a working prototype of your app to the following location along with this completed PowerPoint presentation: appchallenge.pitt.edu Note: you’ll be asked to provide the code later.