A full-stack school management portal with AI-driven career guidance, role-based access, and real-time collaboration.
MongoDB
Express.js
React.js
Node.js
Python
AI/MLRather than bolting on permissions later, I designed the auth system with three distinct JWT-scoped roles from the start. Each role gets a completely different dashboard and API surface, so a parent can never accidentally hit a teacher-only endpoint.
I kept the recommendation logic in a separate Python service instead of cramming it into the Node backend. This let me iterate on the ML model independently and swap it out without touching the main API.
Grades alone don't motivate students to check the portal daily. Badges and leaderboards do. I added a points system tied to real academic metrics so the gamification is meaningful, not gimmicky.
Socket.io rooms had to respect role boundaries — a student shouldn't be able to open a direct channel to another student's parent. Getting the room-creation logic right without creating security holes took several iterations.
Pakistan's schools don't publish clean student datasets. I had to generate synthetic training data, tune it carefully, and validate outputs against real career trajectories to make recommendations that felt credible rather than random.