ResearchBot: Bridging the Gap between Academic Research and Practical Programming Communities

Abstract

Software developers commonly rely on platforms like Stack Overflow for problem-solving and learning. However, academic research is an untapped resource that could greatly benefit industry practitioners. The challenge lies in connecting the innovative insights from academia to real-world problems faced by developers. This project introduces ResearchBot, a tool designed to bridge this academia-industry gap. ResearchBot employs a modular approach, encompassing understanding questions, curating queries to obtain relevant papers in the CrossRef repository, summarizing paper content, and finally answering user questions based on paper summaries. The core objective of ResearchBot is to democratize access to academic knowledge for industry professionals. By providing concise summaries of cutting-edge research directly in response to SE-related questions, ResearchBot facilitates the application of academic insights to practical contexts. Ultimately, it aims to bridge the gap between academia and industry, using research evidence to support learning and decision-making in software development.