Kaiyuan Lou is a student of Data Science at Duke Kunshan University, class of 2024. He founded the Search-So project intending to provide a convenient information retrieval tool for teachers and students at DKU. Initially, he was solely responsible for development under the guidance of Professor Jiang Long. Gradually, he attracted more and more like-minded partners to join the team. As the project proceeded, they further discovered that what they were trying to solve was not just a purely technical problem, but a “darkness under the lamp” problem that is commonly found in many organizations: how to adapt internal resource websites and shared service systems to meet specific needs of users, improve information retrieval efficiency, and plan layouts reasonably? Thus, the business prospects, extended value and potential of this student project gradually emerged.
Between Questions and Answers
Reflecting from “Search” to “Search Engine”
DKU provides rich educational resources and services for teachers and students, including teaching platforms for daily communication, academic resource collections from Duke University shared by the community, and campus life and student activity information. In order to better ensure the security and stability of these services, they need to be built and managed on relatively independent network environments and operation platforms. However, due to the complexity and fragmentation of the information flow, as well as the relative inefficiency of the search function on the official website and the limited links to web pages, students often find it difficult to obtain the real-time information they need effectively and accurately.
Even if the keywords are perfectly typed in, it is difficult to find all the relevant web pages, and the sorting and relevance of search results are also unsatisfactory. Kaiyuan had been at DKU for more than three years, but sometimes he still felt confused about where to find missed activity information, announcements, or which department to seek help from on a particular matter.
The development of search engines on a global scale has undergone multiple iterations, and their algorithms and concepts have become more powerful and scientific. However, it is difficult for them to play a safe and effective role in acting on internal educational resources and campus life guidance. For example, when using Google or Bing, a site can usually find most of the information needed. However, for universities like DKU, external search engines, although efficient, are difficult to reach all the internal files, data, and information. “Search” is an indispensable high-frequency demand in the digital era, and the demand also varies under different scenarios. It does not always have the magic of “knowing everything and saying everything.” For DKU, is it that difficult to find a solution that can instantly obtain answers desired through online search?
“Then why don’t you try to develop one by yourself?” Prof. Long Jiang suggested. As a teacher of core courses in the Computer Science major and a senior programmer who has worked in top computer companies in the United States for more than 20 years, he has fully evaluated the possible difficulty of this project. He knows that there is a group of capable students in his class who are willing to work with Kaiyuan to put this project into action.
Kaiyuan formed a project team very soon. The sense of accomplishment he had from overcoming technical hurdles encouraged him to delve deeper into this path. Discovering challenges and working to discover answers is not only something that happens on campus every day, but it is also something that Kaiyuan and his team have done repeatedly. Initially, they attempted to build on existing search engines on the market, both well-known and specialty. However, everyone agreed that starting from scratch may be the quickest shortcut; creating a unique search engine specialized to DKU may be the best solution.
Between Visible and Invisible
A breakthrough from “Theory” to “Practice”
With the support of the team’s professional backgrounds, they quickly succeeded in developing a usable prototype. This success can be attributed to the robust Data Science major at DKU, which laid a solid foundation in mathematics, statistics, and software programming for the students. This made the data crawler of the project a relatively minor task. After swiftly surveying the main information resources of the school, they developed an algorithm capable of automatically crawling campus network files daily and updating storage. By integrating with existing retrieval tools, the quality of the search tool saw a noticeable improvement.
However, the subsequent process did not proceed as smoothly as they had planned. On one hand, the undergraduate team lacked experience in full-stack project development, appearing somewhat inexperienced compared to professional teams. This made it challenging in the initial stages of the project to determine the framework and allocate tasks effectively. During the testing phase, multiple issues gradually surfaced, leading to the continuous addition of both visible and invisible features to the existing framework through repeated discussions and adjustments.
On the other hand, Kaiyuan and his team lacked specific concepts and expectations for the engineering challenges of the project. They had to continuously adjust through a process of learning, searching, and modifying. Expertise and practical issues became obstacles in the project development. When faced with issues such as prolonged database update times or the school data exceeding storage limits, they had to adapt drastic architectural changes, marking the second significant “all-in” update in the project’s history.
Perhaps it’s just a 0.1-second improvement in search speed or another day of smooth operation, but these brave attempts and the traces of continuous overcoming gradually accumulate in unseen places, becoming the soil for the project’s growth. Despite facing numerous setbacks and the daunting learning cost, Kaiyuan and the team members persevered. Professor Jiang Long also tirelessly promotes this team and their search engine to students in his classes. This is not only an affirmation of their capabilities or an expectation of results but also because he believes that, given time, this young team may carve out a path that few have ventured into—a path filled with challenges but worth pursuing.
Kaiyuan Lou and team member Yizhou Bi
Between Technology and Business
A guide from “Classroom” to “InE”
Search-So propotype
The outstanding faculty-student ratio at DKU is not just a mere statement, and participation in the incubator allows students to think long-term and move steadily. Should they improve existing products or start from scratch? What is the market for the product, and who is the target audience? Under professional guidance, imbuing the project with the potential and momentum for long-term development is the essence of Dii. “I would even suggest that all students consider applying for Dii for any innovative ideas generated or projects formed in class,” Kaiyuan said at the end of the interview, “not only because of visible support but also because of the invaluable empowerment in terms of ideas.”
Between Certainty and Uncertainty
A growth from “Course project” to “Entrepreneurial product”
This year, Kaiyuan is in his senior year, and the project is approaching its conclusion. The whimsical ideas have been somewhat constrained by time, yet they have laid the groundwork for many eager attempts in the future. Currently, in the midst of his busy schedule, Kaiyuan is revising and organizing all the code of the current project according to the previously devised code standards. He is also leaving behind some technical documentation. The team is gradually refining its user interface. This is not only in preparation for the conclusion, making the product more perfect, but also with the hope that the “search” will lay a solid foundation for the next phase. As Kaiyuan puts it, “If there are new people joining this project in the future, the work we are doing right now will be very meaningful to them. What we leave in front of them is not a tangle of yarn without direction but an encyclopedia with a meticulous structure.” Clear project documentation and coding standards can significantly reduce the learning costs for newcomers, allowing them to focus on something more meaningful.
With a glimpse, more than half of the journey has passed. For the team members, they have gained much more than participating in a course project. It’s not just a handy tool benefiting the entire DKU community or knowledge and experience related to search engine development and database organization. It’s more about the perspectives and insights gained from InE. As Kaiyuan repeatedly mentioned in the interview, being a captain sailing into the open sea in a safe campus environment, thinking about how an entrepreneur plans and takes action is a valuable opportunity. They couldn’t have imagined that a project that seemed to arise from a casual conversation could turn into a real entrepreneurial project. Perhaps one day, it could compete with mature products or solutions in the market, becoming a key that transcends the physical space of the campus and can be used by small and medium-sized organizations. Whether entering the industry, dedicating themselves to research, or joining another group of dreamers and enthusiasts, they can draw inspiration from every small progress made today.
From humble beginnings, great achievements have been made. When DKU members can connect more efficiently with the knowledge and information they need, the seed quietly planted may find its own sunshine and fertile soil in the future, take root, and announce the next harvest.
