Zotsites: The UCI Search Engine Empowering Students to Navigate Campus
October 7, 2024
By: Johnny Loc Nguyen
"Whether it's classes or clubs, we want to make sure that everyone is able to find their place." That was the goal that motivated UCI undergraduates Arjun Dabir, Applied and Computational Mathematics '27, and David Culciar, Computer Science and Engineering '27, to create Zotsites, a UCI-specific search engine powered by generative AI that helps students navigate resources, tips and information across the plethora of UC Irvine-related websites.
Conceptualized in Fall 2023 to enter the ANTrepreneur Center's annual AI Innovation Challenge, Zotsites aims to assist students in navigating the vast expanse of UCI-related domains and webpages, including academic resources, student services, campus organizations, communities and even third-party UCI-centered discussion threads on Reddit – so students can always find the relevant information they need. With hopes that this tool becomes a part of every student's arsenal, the duo strives to create a more active and informed student community where everyone knows exactly where to find their niche, community and the resources they need to pursue their academic and interpersonal goals during their time at UCI.
Relating to the feelings of loneliness and frustration felt by incoming students in an unfamiliar environment, the project was born out of the founders' personal experiences navigating their academic and social lives as freshmen. Dabir had difficulties finding campus organizations that matched his interests, while Culciar had issues with course registration, a notoriously stressful time for students marked by competition over course slots, instructor considerations, prerequisites and the pressure to get everything done in four years. Turning these stressors into motivation, Culciar and Dabir then sought to create a tool that would help students who faced similar challenges find commonality, academic resources or those who simply just wanted to learn and get things done quickly.
Placing 4th in the Education and Student Experience track at the 2023 AI Innovation Challenge, the duo never gave up on their belief that Zotsites was something special. Leveraging what they learned from key figures at the ANTrepreneur Center, including Maryam Garg and Ryan Foland, the pair pursued their project beyond the contest. Following the AI Innovation Challenge, they spent much of early 2024 taking Zotsites to startup accelerators and competitions, including the TiE Global Pitch Competition, where they progressed to the regional semi-finals.
While furthering their competitive spirit, Dabir and Culciar also applied and were accepted into the UC Launch startup accelerator program at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, which became a pivotal moment in the development of Zotsites. Over that 10-week period, the pair developed a business plan, interviewed hundreds of industry leaders and stakeholders for input, and refined their vision for their product. It was also during those fateful ten weeks that they were approached by Tom Andriola, UC Irvine's Vice Chancellor for Information Technology and Data (ODIT) to further continue their work on Zotsites over summer 2024 with the support and guidance of the Office of Information Technology.
"Zotsites is a gen AI powered application that is made by UCI students for UCI students," said Andriola. "Our office knew that we wanted to bring this ethos and the Zotsites functionality onto our ZotGPT platform, and we look forward to making this happen during the 24/25 academic year."
What started out as a self-funded student project now had institutional backing, allowing the two to take Zotsites to its next step: a campuswide launch. Dabir and Culciar now continue their development of the service under the Office of Information Technology, namely the engineers within the ZotGPT team. Throughout the summer of 2024, the pair have been consulting with OIT staff while continuing to refine Zotsites and developing features in preparation for its release for the academic year. "Because of them," Dabir said, "we learned so many valuable skills we would have never gotten unless we were far more experienced developers at a large company." Apart from advising the student developers, OIT also provides server hosting services for the Zotsites domain, ensuring that the site is scalable in anticipation of its launch to campus.
Initially consisting of a single search tool, Zotsites has expanded to include a course planning feature, furthering the duo's mission of providing convenient access to resources for UCI students. Using the service, users can input their major, minor and previously completed courses and receive a quarterly plan detailing their required course load for the rest of their time at UCI. The planner, like the search function, are available to all who visit the site and do not require a login, however users who create accounts will be able to save their searches and course plans.
Both features are slated to make their way into the initial launch version of Zotsites in fall 2024. And while the website's signature anteater logo dances its way across students' computer screens one-by-one, the duo are already imagining Zotsites as a fully-fledged suite of student tools, growing and adapting to changing student needs. "We want Zotsites to become a hub where students can get the help they need for anything college and career related," asserts Dabir, expressing that the two are eager to continue work on the service for the foreseeable future.
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