Web-based retrieval system for question-answering

Abstract

Students often use question-answer forums to find answers to their questions or ask questions that require people’s opinions and explanations. Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Question-Answer (NTUQA) forum is a web-based application. This forum allows users to ask questions related to their Past Year Paper (PYP) questions, comment under posts if they have the answers and vote for correct answers shared by their peers. Project Officer Nguyen Quang Sang first developed this forum using the Askbot open-source software. This software was based on the Django Framework. However, the Askbot software has scant documentation which makes it difficult to maintain the system for developers. Therefore, the objective of this project is to redesign the current system and to expand the forum to allow users to post general academic queries. A search functionality will be implemented for users to search for answers to their questions. A machine learning model will be incorporated to re-rank the search queries so that search results that are most relevant to the user’s queries will be displayed. This report will describe the process of developing the forum and the implementation of the search functionality