G2 is a software marketplace that started by asking the question “why is it easier to find authentic information about a $100 hotel room than a $100,000 piece of software?”. Students on this team will design a tool that will leverage the power of AI to make reviewing software easier with the goal of increasing the number of completed reviews by as much as 10%.
Abstract:
G2 is the largest and most trusted software marketplace. They aim to democratize software, disrupting the traditional analyst model, and building trust by showcasing the authentic voice of millions of software buyers. With over 145,000 products and services, they currently have 2.5 Million authenticated reviews. What makes their service valuable is the volume of thoughtful detailed customer reviews of software, and if it is easier to write a review, more customers will complete them.
In order to help customers complete more reviews, G2 is exploring using AI to help users write them. Their business product is honest real people reviews, so they do not want the AI to write the reviews completely, but rather to find the “sweet spot” of AI generated prompts and suggestions that will streamline the process for their users.
Students on the G2 team will design a tool that will leverage large language models to streamline the software review writing process. The project will utilize JavaScript, Ruby on Rails, AWS, OpenAI, Amazon Bedrock and other open source models. (If you have experience with any of these, be sure to highlight that in your personal statement.)
Impact:
G2 is built on reviews and the more raw reviews they can gather, the very-much better. Writing detailed authentic reviews is time consuming, so if they can catalyze or simplify the process, it will have a strong value.
Scope:
Minimum Viable Product Deliverable (Minimum level of success)
- Develop an understanding of the current business process and technical challenges, interview important stakeholders, articulate current failure modes, and develop most relevant use cases.
- Literature review of all relevant techniques, similar applications, and patents.
- Demonstrate functional competence in the tech stack by completing a “mini project”.
- Develop a strategic approach and project management plan for delivery.
- Complete first prototype and demonstrate functionality of the v1 prototype against applicable system requirements (before the end of Winter term). Develop a strategic plan to address highest priority development in a v2 prototype.
Expected Final Deliverable (Expected level of success)
- Complete the v2 prototype and demonstrate the results to the stakeholders.
Stretch Goal Opportunities: (High level of success)
- Implement some or all of the tool into the G2 production environment.
Generative AI (3-4 Students)
Specific Skills: Practical skills in incorporating generative AI models, curating training data, developing prompts. Experience with LLMs.
EECS 281 (or equivalent) is required.
EECS 485: Web Systems and/or EECS 445: Introduction to Machine Learning and EECS 492 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence would also be helpful.
Likely Majors: CS, DATA, ECE
General Programming (2-3 Students)
Specific Skills: General programming skills, good software engineering. UI design.
EECS 281 (or equivalent) is required,
experience in full stack development is a plus.
Likely Majors: CS, DATA, SI
Additional Desired Skills/Knowledge/Experience
- Successful team-based project experience, particularly in code development.
- Practical experience in generative AI modeling applications and LLM.
- Project Management experience with Agile
- Designing and managing focus group testing of stakeholders.
- Experience with any of the following tools
- JavaScript
- Ruby on Rails
- AI or ML experience with OpenAI
- Amazon Bedrock
- AWS
- If you have taken any of the following courses please include that information
- EECS 445; EECS 485; EECS 492.
Sponsor Mentor
Austin Bedell
Austin is a Senior Product Designer at G2 that has been practicing design for over 19 years serving industries including B2B software, educational technology, consumer packaged goods, financial services and automotive among others. His passions are UX/UI design, user-centered design and research, brand identity design, color theory, typography and creative strategy. He currently lives in the metro-detroit area and loves working and mentoring up-and-coming designers and creatives.
Owen Tannenbaum
Owen is a Senior Data Scientist at G2. Owen has worked at G2 for 7+ years and has seen the company grow from a relatively small startup to a much larger one with hundreds of employees and global offices. He’s had the chance to work on both internal and external initiatives throughout the organization. Owen has led ML projects in key business areas like review moderation and buyer intent data. Owen currently resides in Chicago but is a Michigan alum and originally from Ann Arbor.
Sponsor Mentor
Roger Valade
Roger is the Senior Vice President of Engineering at G2. Prior to that, he was the CTO at ProQuest where he was a champion for many MDP projects. He has extensive experience in enterprise and application architecture, software development and methodology (with an emphasis on agile), strategic planning, project and program management, offshoring in China and India, and change management. Former positions include VP, Technology for a $200M publishing company; VP, Technical Solutions for a J2EE consultancy; and Architect at General Motors. Have managed teams of up to 105 people and budgets of nearly $20M.
Faculty Mentor
Professor Jeff Ringenberg
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Jeff is a professor in the EECS department. His research interests are mobile learning software development, tactile programming, methods for bringing technology into the classroom, and studying the effects of social networking and collaboration on learning. Jeff is a long time MDP mentor.
Weekly Meetings: During the winter 2025 semester, the G2 team will meet on Fridays from 10am-Noon. Location TBD.
Work Location: Most of the work will take place on campus in Ann Arbor, with at least one visit to the G2 offices in Chicago, IL to hold meetings with stakeholders, visit facilities, and give presentations. MDP will provide transportation.
Course Substitutions: CE MDE, ChE Elective, CS Capstone/MDE, Data Science MDE/Capstone, EE MDE, CoE Honors, SI Elective/Cognate
Citizenship Requirements: This project is open to all students. Note: International students on an F-1 visa will be required to declare part time CPT during Winter 2025 and Fall 2025 terms.
IP/NDA: Students will sign IP/NDA documents that are unique to G2.
Summer Project Activities: No summer engagement is required. Interested rising seniors (expected graduation Fall 25 or Winter 26) on the team with the right to work in the US indefinitely without sponsorship are encouraged to apply to the G2 Internship Program.
Learn more about the expectations for this type of MDP project