Project Guild

Project Overview: I always wanted to create tools to solve problems I actually faced. Project Guild is my answer to the everyday frustrations of university life - a collection of practical tools built by students, for students. What started as personal pain points became a platform that I’m now open-sourcing for the entire UOWD community to build upon.

The Problems I Faced

As a student, I encountered several recurring frustrations that consumed way too much time:

1. Timetable Planning Hell

   • The university website’s design meant spending over 6 hours manually planning my timetable before each semester
   • The process involved endless clicking, copying, and cross-referencing
   • I knew there had to be a more intuitive way

2. WAM Calculator Tedium

   • Checking my Weighted Average Mark meant entering grades one by one
   • I discovered a better solution: just copy-paste the entire grades page - simple!
   • No more manual data entry, no more calculation errors

3. Document Search Nightmare

   • Too many university documents and policies scattered everywhere
   • Finding exactly what I needed felt like searching for a needle in a haystack
   • Solution? Build a RAG chatbot that retrieves information instantly - Bingo!

The Solution I Built

Instead of complaining, I decided to build a website that would solve all these problems and more. Project Guild became that platform - a central hub where students can access helpful tools that actually make university life easier.

Why Open Source?

I want students at my university to build on top of this. That’s why Project Guild will be open-sourced and available to everyone - no gatekeeping, no barriers. Future generations of UOWD students can contribute, improve, and add tools that solve their own unique problems.

Key Tools Delivered

1. Intuitive Timetable Planner

   • Reduced timetable planning from 6+ hours to minutes
   • Smart conflict detection and course recommendations
   • Export and share functionality

2. Smart WAM Calculator

   • Simple copy-paste interface - no manual entry needed
   • Automatic grade parsing and calculation
   • Track your academic progress effortlessly

3. RAG-Powered Document Assistant

   • AI chatbot that retrieves university policy information instantly
   • Natural language queries for easy searching
   • No more hunting through endless PDFs

Built for the Community

• Open Source: Available for all students to use and contribute
• Student-Driven: Built to solve real student problems
• Collaborative: Future students can add their own tools
• No Gatekeeping: Free access for the entire UOWD community

Impact & Vision

This project is more than just a collection of tools - it’s about creating a culture of building solutions instead of accepting problems. I hope it inspires other students to:

• Identify pain points in their academic journey
• Build practical solutions that help others
• Contribute to a growing ecosystem of student-made tools
• Share knowledge openly without barriers

Lessons Learned

Building Project Guild taught me that the best solutions come from experiencing the problems firsthand. It reinforced my belief in:

• Building for real needs, not imagined ones
• Open collaboration over closed systems
• Practical solutions over perfect ones
• Community-driven development for lasting impact

Visit: www.projectguild.app