EECommittee

Treatment

The committee had been answering the same questions in the same Facebook group for years: which prerequisites does this subject have, who teaches it, where are the notes, what will my GPA be if this goes badly.

ظلّت اللجنة تجيب عن الأسئلة نفسها في مجموعة فيسبوك نفسها سنوات: ما متطلبات هذه المادة، ومن يدرّسها، وأين الملخصات، وكم سيصير معدّلي إن ساءت الأمور.

The app turns that into structure. The study plan is a navigable tree, so a subject is a destination with everything hanging off it. Staff details are searchable. The GPA box projects both semester and cumulative results before the semester ends.

يحوّل التطبيق ذلك إلى بنية. الخطة الدراسية شجرة قابلة للتنقّل، فتصير المادة وجهةً يتدلّى منها كل شيء. وبيانات الهيئة التدريسية قابلة للبحث. وتتوقّع حاسبة المعدّل نتيجة الفصل والتراكمي قبل انتهاء الفصل.

It is the longest-running thing I maintain, and the constraint that shapes it is that I am not paid for it. Anything that needs constant attention does not survive.

هو أطول ما أتولى صيانته عمرًا، والقيد الذي يشكّله أنني لا أتقاضى عليه أجرًا، فأي شيء يحتاج انتباهًا دائمًا لا ينجو.

Challenges

1. 01

   Searching in two languages at once

   The problem

   Students refer to the same subject as 'Signals', 'إشارات', or a course code, often switching mid-sentence. Indexing one language means half the searches fail silently.

   What I did

   Every subject carries both names and its code in one searchable field, normalised on both sides. A query in either language, or a code, reaches the same subject.

2. 02

   A campus network you cannot rely on

   The problem

   Students open the app between lectures, in corridors and basements where the connection is unreliable. Every screen hitting the network makes the app feel broken in exactly the place it is used.

   What I did

   The plan tree and staff directory are cached aggressively and treated as slow-changing data, so the app opens instantly from cache and revalidates in the background rather than blocking on a request.

3. 03

   Content that must outlive its maintainer

   The problem

   Study plans change, staff move, and I am one volunteer. An app that needs a code release every time a course is renamed dies the moment I get busy.

   What I did

   All of it is content in Firebase, editable by committee members without touching the app. My job is the client; keeping the data current is theirs, which is the only arrangement that lasts.

Results

• Published on Google Play and maintained across multiple student intakes.منشور على Google Play ومُصان عبر دفعات طلابية متعددة.
• About eleven services behind one search box.نحو أحد عشر خدمة خلف صندوق بحث واحد.
• Content editable by the committee without a release.محتوى قابل للتعديل من اللجنة دون إصدار جديد.