🤖 URI AI Lab Chatbot

This project was originally created by Zachary Johnson and is now maintained by the University of Rhode Island AI Lab. It is designed to support students, faculty, and visitors by providing an intelligent, conversational assistant with information about the AI Lab's research, events, location, and resources.

🔍 Purpose:
A customizable, AI-powered assistant chatbot that answers questions about the URI AI Lab — including ongoing research, student involvement, lab hours, and educational tools.

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🚀 Features

• 🔗 Powered by OpenAI API (GPT-4/GPT-3.5)
• 🧠 Prompt engineering for accurate domain-specific responses
• 🗃️ Modular architecture with support for RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)
• 💬 Cross-platform frontend (React Native for IOS & Andriod development)
• 🔐 Environment-based config with secure API key handling
• 📚 Expandable for URI Library or small business integrations

Web version available inside the repository uri-ai-lab-chatbot-web

📌 Roadmap

🗺️ Here's what’s coming soon — or what you can help with!

🔎 Integrate LangChain-powered RAG backend (context-aware responses from Pinecone)
🌐 Deploy public demo site for URI students and visitors
🗣️ Add voice input & TTS support for accessibility and hands-free interaction
📚 Connect with URI Library systems for shared academic chatbot capabilities
🧩 Modularize bot structure for other departments or small businesses
🧠 Add AI memory or personalization (for frequent users)
🏢 Modularize chatbot for other departments/small businesses

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🛠️ Getting Started

🔧 Prerequisites

• Node.js (v18+)
• npm or yarn
• OpenAI API Key (or Claude/Gemini optional)
• Expo Go (if running the mobile version)

🖥️ Installation

git clone https://github.com/uri-ai-lab/ai-lab-chatbot.git
cd ai-lab-chatbot
npm install

🧪 Running Locally (Expo)

npm start

or

npx expo start

🔑 Environment Variables

🔐 Make sure you have a .env file based on the provided .env.example

Create a .env file in the root:

OPENAI_API_KEY=your-api-key-here
BACKEND_URL=http://localhost:3000

You can find .env.example in the repo.

🧠 AI Behavior & Prompt Engineering

This chatbot uses prompt engineering techniques and optionally supports retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). Current categories include:

🧪 Research Projects
🏢 Lab Location & Hours
🎓 Student Opportunities
📅 Upcoming Events

Future support for fine-tuning or vector-based search using LangChain + Pinecone is under development.

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions from students, faculty, and developers!

To contribute:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (e.g., feature/add-research-section)
3. Make your changes
4. Submit a pull request for review

You can also:

• 📥 Submit issues or feature requests
• 🧪 Add new prompt examples
• 📄 Help improve documentation

Please read the CONTRIBUTING.md before getting started.

👥 Maintainers

Zachary Johnson — @zrjohnson3 - zrjohnson3@gmail.com / zachary.johnson@uri.edu
URI AI Lab — ai.uri.edu

📄 License

MIT License — see LICENSE for details.