University Academic Affairs · 案例研究
Ask whether a major change is allowed, and get the governing clause's source text on the same screen
它能带来什么Ask in natural language which clause governs a matter like a major change or a leave of absence and get the regulation's name, the clause's location, and the clause's source text on one screen; upload a revised PDF and it lands in the index automatically; edit the regulation right in the system's editor.
A student asks about changing majors at the academic affairs counter. This semester's grades seem to fall short of the requirement. The first thing the staff member has to confirm is which regulation applies to this matter. But the rulebook isn't a single volume. Detailed rules and guidelines are scattered by major and by case, and it's far more than one person could memorize whole.
So they pull up a Word document and a PDF and skim the table of contents. They search by whatever keyword comes to mind, and when they hit a sentence like "pursuant to Article so-and-so," they go find that clause and read on. Even when they find the answer, the report keeps only the conclusion, while the source text it rested on sits off in another file. And the regulations keep getting revised.
One university's academic affairs support office decided to solve this loop differently. Instead of digging through regulations, they ask, load, and edit on one screen. The system has passed security review and is currently near operational deployment.
A rulebook you can't memorize keeps piling up
Much of an academic affairs support office's work is "finding the basis." Whether handling an inquiry, doing an internal review, or reaching a decision in deliberation, the same question comes first. Which clause applies to this matter? The answer is in the rulebook — the problem is that the rulebook is simply too vast.
- The academic rules themselves. Managed as Word documents and PDFs
- The detailed regulations and guidelines trailing each major. They go on endlessly, and the clause that applies differs case by case
- The range of matters covered: admission and graduation, credits and completion, transfers and leaves of absence
- Cross-references between clauses. A sentence like "pursuant to Article so-and-so" leads to yet another clause
- Revisions. Regulations are living documents: they're revised every semester, case by case, and each time you have to relearn what changed
Today they dig through the documents by hand
The old way was simple but grueling. They'd open the rulebook in Word or PDF, find the relevant clause by table of contents and keyword, and follow the references between clauses by hand. When "pursuant to Article so-and-so" led to another clause, they'd trace that connection manually and interpret it to fit the case. There was a gap here. If the keyword that came to mind didn't match the term used in the regulation, you'd miss the very clause you needed. Even when you reached a conclusion the hard way, the source text it was based on was left separated from the result.
Above all, the work was scattered across several places. Looking things up happened in a document viewer; applying updates happened through the process of receiving and registering a new file; editing happened in yet another Word file. Whenever regulations were revised, you had to repeat the cycle of receiving a new document, re-applying it, and announcing it. Keeping things current and consistent was structurally hard.
Instead of digging through regulations, you ask, load, and edit on one screen.
Put the rulebook into a workspace
The heart of the setup is merging the three scattered tasks — asking (lookup), loading (applying updates), and editing — into one workspace. You don't need to reorganize the regulation files into some other format first. The Word documents and PDFs go in as they are.
Getting the rulebook into a state you can ask questions of
Put the regulation files into the workspace
Drop in the academic rules themselves plus the folders of detailed regulations and guidelines for each major. Leave the Word documents and PDFs exactly as they are.
Open "Extract sources" (⌘⇧I)
Type "extract" into the "Search everything" palette and an "Extract sources" row appears under the "Actions" section (its shortcut chip reads ⌘⇧I). Press Enter and the extraction wizard opens; drag the regulation folders in. Each row gets a kind label like Document or PDF, and text-heavy PDFs take a fast local path while scans go through vision OCR before landing in the index.
Press "Build" on the Activity center card
When the "Build this workspace's knowledge graph?" card appears, press "Build". This is when how the regulations and clauses connect to each other gets built.
Queue your question while the build runs
Send your first message mid-build and the "Knowledge graph still building" dialog pops up. Pick "Send when extraction finishes" and the question waits in a strip above the composer, then goes out once the build settles. You don't have to sit on your hands while the whole rulebook runs.
Upload revisions in the same place
When a regulation is revised, upload the revised PDF. The system automatically converts it into a searchable form and reflects it in the index, so the latest regulation shows up in answers without a person converting and registering it each time. When you're changing the clause text itself, you edit it right in the system's editor instead of going through a separate Word file.
Ask by the matter, without knowing the regulation's terms
"Can a student whose grades fall short of the requirement this semester
apply to change majors?"
→ You don't just get a conclusion. The source regulation's name, the clause's
location, and the source text of that clause land on the same screen as the
answer. It's in a form you can cite directly in a review or report.
"What does the clause this one points to with 'pursuant to Article so-and-so'
actually say?"
→ The referenced clause's regulation name, location, and source text follow on.
No step where you trace the reference by hand and reopen the document.
"What do the leave-of-absence rules say per the revision I just uploaded?"
→ It answers from the latest regulation in the index. Nobody registered
anything beyond uploading the revised PDF.
(with any of these questions)
→ A "Where this came from in your notes" mini-graph is drawn under the answer.
The legend separates "Directly matched" from "Related",
and clicking a node opens that entity in the graph view.Answers take this shape for two reasons. First, ask in natural language and it finds the relevant document and answers from its content. It isn't a method where the keyword you thought of has to exactly match the term used in the regulation. Second, the form of the answer is fixed. It doesn't toss out a conclusion alone; it puts the source regulation's name, the clause's location, and the source text of that clause on one screen together.
So the evidence travels with the answer. The conclusion and the source text don't drift apart, which means that when you write a review opinion or a report, you don't have to open another file to hunt the clause down and paste it back in.
What changes
| Before | Now |
|---|---|
| If the keyword that came to mind didn't match the regulation's term, you missed the clause you needed | Ask about the matter in natural language and it finds the relevant regulation and answers from its content |
| A person traced the clause that "pursuant to Article so-and-so" pointed to by hand | Ask on through to the referenced clause and get its regulation name, location, and source text together |
| The report kept only the conclusion; the source text it rested on was in another file | The source regulation's name, the clause's location, and its source text land on one screen with the answer. Cite it as is |
| Lookup happened in a document viewer, updates through file registration, editing in yet another Word file | Upload a revised PDF and it lands in the index automatically; clause text gets edited right in the system's editor |
With lookup, loading, and editing gathered into one workspace, keeping things current and consistent got easier. "What's the basis for this matter?" Putting the conclusion and the clause's source text on one screen together, in answer to the question an academic affairs office faces every day, is what this system aims at.