Anteater Archive

Overview

AntArchive is a dynamic archive where ICS capstone projects can be uploaded, managed, and explored long after the class wraps up. By centralizing past and current projects in one searchable and filterable archive, AntArchive gives every team's accomplishments the visibility they deserve.

Problem
At UCI, there isn't a centralized archive to store information about capstone projects, making it difficult to see the history of the ICS capstone program.

Solution
Develop a secure and dynamic archive that allows for the upload and management of ICS capstone projects

Team Members
Robin Stoebe, Calvin Phan, Gavin Nguyen, Chelsea Kim, Karen La

Sponsor
Matthew Bietz
Professor

Duration
10 weeks

Frameworks & Tools
Figma, Trello, MySQL, Tailwind, Yii2, PHP

Development Process

For the limited timeframe of one quarter (approximately 10 weeks), our team followed 2 week sprints using Agile Scrum methodology to manage progress and complete tasks. We met with our sponsor weekly to present updates, receive feedback on our design and implementation, and adjust priorities. Every week, our team held regular check-ins to communicate what they were working on and update their progress.

The project was divided into two major phases:

Weeks 1-3 focused on gathering requirements, conducting interviews, and producing early-stage deliverables such as user stories, personas, and wireframes in Figma.
Weeks 4-8 marked the full transition into development, where the team shifted from planning to implementation. We built out core features and continuously tested and iterated based on stakeholder input.

One of our biggest challenges was working within a limited timeline of 10 weeks (1 quarter), unlike many capstone teams who had 2 quarters. This meant we had to make a fast, focused decisions and scope our project carefully to deliver a functional product by the end of Week 10.

Documentation

Trello Board

Trello was used to organize, assignment responsibilities, monitor project progress in real-time and track tasks using Agile Scrum process. Each team member created cards for their assignment work, categorized by spring, and updated them as tasks progressed.

Figma

Figma was used to create wireframes, personas, low-fidelity mockup for core pages. The team collaborated in real time to design layouts and align user experience before implementation. It served as a design system, where our team could refer to design decisions throughout development.

Requirements Document

All key planning materials such as user stories, interviews, system requirements, technical diagrams, and our change log. These include: UML class diagrams, use case and sequence diagrams, user flow diagrams. This document was iterated on throughout the project and is intended to guide both our team and any future developers.

Sprint Report

Sprint report was used to summarize each sprint's goals, completed tasks, blockers, and takeaways. This helped our team reflect on our workflow, evaluate what challenges we faced and what we learned, track completed deliverables, and identify areas of improvement.

Sponsor Collaboration

Although our project did not have an external sponsor, we treated our course instructor and ICS faculty stakeholders as clients. We met regularly with our professor and appointments with faculty members to share progress and receive feedback. Their insights helped us clear up priorities and adjust features within the short development window.

Evaluation

Design Feedback

Received weekly feedback from our sponsor during Monday meetings, helping us refine features
Met with Mimi Anderson (Associate Director of Corporate Relations and Capstone Projects) to get design-specific feedback around styling and layout expectations
Conducted informal usability testing with peers and classmates to assess flow of features like project submission and browsing

Development Testing

Used Yii2 framework for its built-in support for CRUD operations and MySQL for database
Ran manual tests on key areas including:
- Project submission forms
- Filtering and browsing functionality
- Role-based dashboards
- Responsive design on mobile and desktop
Discovered challenges when syncing code changes with the live website via SSH, some features were implemented correctly in code but were not reflected in the live environment

Development Challenges

Debugging Yii2 was major learning curve since none of us had used PHP or this framework before
Dynamic filters required extra time to implement and test across different project views
Transferring form input data into project template required careful backend integration and database validation

Final Product

The final result of out project is a working prototype, a web application designed to archive and showcase UCI ICS Capstone Projects. While built within a tight 10-week timeframe, the platform delivers core functionality:

Project Submission Form

A structured form that allows students to submit their capstone project, including fields for title, description, year/quarter, category/tag, team members, professor, sponsor, and file upload. The form is designed for clarity and validates required inputs before submission.

Project Gallery

A responsive, scrollable grid that displays submitted projects. Users can search, sort, and filter by tags, year, quarter, professor, or keyword. Each project card leads to its individual project page, where it contains detailed information.

Admin Dashboard

Allows admin users to view all submitted projects, approve or feature specific ones, assign user roles, and add awards or badges to selected projects. It serves as the central control panel for archive moderation.

Professor Dashboard

Allows professors to manage the projects associated with their course sections. Professors can view submitted student projects, approve or deny projects, and add feedback or comments for teams.

To support future development, we documented incomplete features and added comments in the codebase for clarity.

If We Had More Time...

Implement full UCI Single Sign-On (SSO) integration
Continue building backend for the News & Events page
Add automated testing for forms, roles, and edge cases
Complete the Canvas integration to automatically import course rosters
Refactor some backend logic for better scalability and maintainability
Enable file upload previews and validation messages for user feedback

Project Demo

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