More than 2500 users, including students and teachers, updates in a few minutes and the simplest interface. We talked with Maxim Sychugov - the creator of a unique application with an up-to-date schedule - "Chatbot Maxik", whith its users falling in love with every day.
- Maxim, good afternoon! Congratulations on your new position! You are recently a software engineer in the Department of Information Technology. Did you expect an invitation from the university to cooperate?
Good afternoon, I did not expect an invitation to cooperation and everything turned out by accident, thanks to the schedule chatbot, which, as you know, is already used by many. It all started with the fact that the initial schedule services were not very convenient for me. In addition, I already had a small chat bot for my friends, but it was more entertaining in nature, it was a kind of a simple test. And I decided why not try to implement my scheduleing service, repurposing the created bot, make it more serious, more complete.
- The first users, they were probably classmates, immediately appreciated the idea or were they critical?
Yes, I originally created the program specifically for classmates. In general, the idea was appreciated, although there were problems with the presentation of the schedule, they are still there, but they are no longer so critical and more convenient.
- What functions does the chatbot have today?
At the moment, the bot can send full-time students a schedule for today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, for any day in the period of two academic weeks, for an even / odd week, a schedule for a certain specified date, a schedule with an image that is a picture of pdf pages ...
Also, a student can see the busyness of teachers, add several study groups, subscribe to the daily schedule distribution at any time convenient for him. Also, the same functions are implemented for the teachers themselves based on their busyness. In addition, the bot can be added to a conversation, for example, a training conversation, where similar functionality.
Communication with the bot is presented in the form of text commands or the built-in VK keyboard, depending on the user's ability and preferences.
Modernization is ongoing, for example, recently there was a command "schedule by date", in the future we are planning a schedule by date interval, attaching Teams links, if the lesson is remote, and other various features. Also, at the moment the bot is implemented only for the vk platform, but there are plans to expand it to other platforms. By the way, due to the current situation, the timetable for the text presentation is updated every day, the timetable by the image is taken directly from the site.
- Multifunctionality is the strong point of your application! We know that it is quite popular in student circles. How many fans does Maxik have today?
Only in general by the number of added main groups (excluding other user groups), at the moment - about 2,500 thousand users. We plan to conduct analytics by groups, which will help those who do not yet know about the bot to start using it.
- Do you use it yourself?
I myself, of course, use it, it is convenient to find out the schedule, both my own and my friends. Also, in our lesson conversation, it is set up for a daily mailing.
- You are an example for many students! To do something useful for the whole university is not an easy task. Wish something to those who, perhaps, dream of implementing some kind of intra-university idea, but are afraid, do not believe in themselves ...
First you need to analyze whether this service will really be useful, and if it is really useful, then just take it and try it, it will definitely not be worse, and this way you will gain experience and skills, learn from mistakes.
When creating this application, I had no idea where it would lead. I was very worried when I went to the first meeting at the university for work, I did not know what I would do, what competencies they would ask for. But all is well and I hope it will last for a long time.
Now I quite easily combine work in the Department of Information Technologies, because I am studying for a master's degree. Training takes place in the evening, after a working day, so work and study do not conflict with each other in time, and you do not need to get far either. After graduation, of course, there are plans to stay to work at the university.
- Thank you, colleague! We really believe that other students will follow your example, because we know that there are a lot of talents at Alma Mater.
Friends, Vyatka State University is always open to dialogue about cooperation with those who are ready to be useful, who are implementing unique projects and are ready to become part of an ambitious high-tech university.
The university employs a huge number of graduates, but today we are ready to open career prospects for you if you are still on the bench. We are waiting for our team of creators, ideologists, unique specialists! Together to the top.
Contacts of the Department of Personnel Management and Employment - 8 (8332) 460-703.
VyatSU Employment Center "Career Steps" >>
Translated by Artemy Sizov
