ICS Scheduler

Role: Full Stack Developer Timeline: 22 weeks (Sept 2024 – Mar 2025) Team: 2 developers + 2 UX/UI designer + 2 stakeholders

A full-stack course scheduling platform built for UC Irvine's ICS department. Faculty and staff can manage course sections, classroom assignments, and weekly schedules through an interactive calendar interface with drag-and-drop functionality, role-based permissions, and real-time conflict detection.

View Source Code Live Demo (No Public Demo)

The Problem

The ICS department needed a modern scheduling tool to replace manual spreadsheet-based processes. Faculty needed to view available time slots, request rooms, and coordinate across multiple courses — all while avoiding conflicts and respecting room capacities.

My Role & Contributions

Requirements & Design

Collaborated with two sponsor stakeholders to produce detailed requirements
Prototyped calendar interactions in Figma
Designed the data model for courses, users, classrooms, and modules

Development

Built RESTful Node.js/Express APIs backed by MongoDB Atlas
Implemented role-based access control (admin, faculty, viewer)
Developed the Next.js front-end with TypeScript
Integrated a messaging system for schedule coordination

Tech Stack

Next.js TypeScript Node.js Express MongoDB Atlas Figma

Screenshots

ICS Scheduler weekly calendar view showing color-coded course blocks across time slots — Weekly calendar view with course blocks

ICS Scheduler Scheduler Panel showing how staff can assign modules to courses — Scheduler Module - Assign Modules

ICS Scheduler Scheduler Panel showing how staff can request co-section classes — Scheduler Module - Co-Section Preferences

ICS Scheduler Admin Dashboard — Admin Dashboard

Challenges & Solutions

Conflict detection: Overlapping time slots for the same room needed real-time validation. I implemented server-side constraint checking on every schedule mutation.
Stakeholder alignment: Requirements evolved over the 22-week timeline. Regular Figma prototype reviews kept everyone aligned before code was written.
Data modeling: The relationship between courses, sections, time slots, and rooms required a flexible schema. MongoDB's document model handled the nested relationships well.

Outcomes

Delivered a functional prototype within the 22-week academic timeline.
Stakeholders validated the core calendar workflow through interactive demos.
Gained hands-on experience with real-world requirements gathering and iterative design.

Lessons Learned

Prototyping in Figma before coding saved significant rework — stakeholders could react to visual designs faster than written specs.
Role-based access control should be designed from the start, not bolted on later.
Calendar UIs have deceptively complex edge cases (DST, multi-day events, recurring patterns).