A Question-Answering System for Applicant Support Using Modern Messaging Apps

Abstract

There is an increasing user interest in instant messaging applications. These applications allow us to interact with other users and include a functionality that can help us to implement bots that automate various business processes or provide information services. This paper considers a specialized question answering system that employs today’s messaging services infrastructure to support university applicants. Over two years, we gathered a corpus of typical questions of applicants and developed an information retrieval model for finding similar questions in this corpus. Applicants can type their questions using natural language without any formal requirements to phrase construction or using special templates. If the system is unable to find a relevant answer, the user can directly address the question to representatives of the university. The system was implemented using modern cloud services provided by Amazon. We used serverless computations and NoSQL databases, so we had to develop an appropriate architecture of the service. Since the system operates sensitive personal data and provides personalized service, we analyzed methods of ensuring system security and approaches to user authorization. We are currently testing our system and estimating its information retrieval quality.