You know what’s annoying? Having to log into some clunky portal just to check your attendance. Students at my college had to deal with this constantly - remembering passwords, navigating awful interfaces, and half the time the system was down anyway.
So I built something better.
The actual problem
Students needed to check attendance but kept running into:
- Portal only worked during certain hours (seriously?)
- Everyone forgot their login details
- The website was from 2005 and acted like it
- Staff got bombarded with “what’s my attendance?” questions
My solution: WhatsApp automation
Instead of fixing the portal (impossible), I made it so students could just text their enrollment number to get their attendance. Simple.
Here’s how it works:
- Student texts “ATTENDANCE 12345678”
- UIPath grabs the message
- System looks up their attendance
- Student gets their info back instantly
Building it with UIPath
I used UIPath because it’s actually good at this stuff:
- Monitors WhatsApp for messages
- Parses the enrollment number
- Hits the attendance database
- Sends back a clean response
The trickiest part was handling errors - what if someone sends garbage? What if the database is down? Had to think through all the ways it could break.
What changed
Students love it because:
- Works 24/7
- No passwords to remember
- Just use WhatsApp like normal
- Get answers in seconds
Staff love it because they stopped getting bothered with attendance questions all day.
Win-win.
Lessons learned
Sometimes the best solution isn’t fixing the broken system - it’s working around it completely. Also, if you make something easier than the alternative, people will actually use it.
The whole project took maybe a week to build but saved hours of frustration for hundreds of students. That’s good automation.
For Administration:
- Reduced manual queries
- Automated response system
- Better resource utilization
- Improved student satisfaction
Lessons Learned
- User Experience First: Keep the interface as simple as possible
- Error Handling: Always anticipate and handle edge cases
- Security: Never compromise on data protection
- Testing: Thorough testing with various scenarios is crucial
Future Enhancements
Potential improvements for the system:
- Integration with multiple messaging platforms
- Advanced analytics and reporting
- Support for additional queries (grades, schedules, etc.)
- Mobile app integration
Conclusion
This project demonstrated how automation can bridge the gap between complex systems and user-friendly interfaces. UIPath’s robust automation capabilities made it possible to create a solution that benefits both students and administrators.
The key takeaway? Sometimes the best solutions are the simplest ones that address real user needs.
Have you worked with UIPath or similar automation tools? I’d love to hear about your experiences!