Transforming the puzzle of university scheduling with MatchMyLab
Our Story
MatchMyLab.com is an AI-driven platform designed to help university departments allocate teaching assistants to courses and generate fair, conflict-free schedules across large undergraduate programs. It was built to replace the fragmented combination of spreadsheets, forms, email chains, and manual coordination that often makes TA scheduling slow, stressful, and difficult to manage at scale. By incorporating factors such as TA availability, prior experience, course needs, workload balance, and scheduling constraints, MatchMyLab provides a centralized and reusable system that makes the process faster, more transparent, and more explainable.
The project began in a much simpler form than it exists today. My earliest solution was not a full platform, but a Python script I built in response to the TA scheduling challenges I was experiencing firsthand. At the time, my goal was simply to make an exhausting and inefficient process more manageable. But it quickly became clear that the problem was much broader than a single course or a one-time fix. As word spread, other professors and instructors saw the potential of the tool and began expressing interest in using it as well. That early momentum made it clear that this could become something far more impactful than an individual workaround.
As MatchMyLab started to grow from an early idea into a real platform, I knew it had the potential to become much bigger than something I could build alone. At that point, I brought Julien Mutton and Gustavo Rodrigues Foz onto the project, and they quickly became integral to its development. What began with my own experience of the inefficiencies and frustrations of TA scheduling evolved into a genuinely collaborative effort, shaped by their technical insight, creativity, and sustained commitment. Together, we transformed the project from an early proof of concept into a scalable, AI-driven system designed to improve fairness, transparency, and efficiency in TA allocation and scheduling.
Dr. Denise Woodward Teaching Professor of Biology
“This isn't a niche [problem], it's something departments across the college and other large institutions are navigating. What's exciting about MatchMyLab is its ability to streamline these assignments, improve alignment between TAs and courses, and ultimately enhance the teaching and learning experience at scale.”
Dr. Lauren McCarthy
Associate Teaching Professor of Biology
“MatchMyLab has transformed my role as serving as a laboratory coordinator by making the process of assigning our teaching assistants to
their sections much more effective, efficient, and fair. It really simplifies the process, and is very easy to use.”
Dr. Meredith Defelice
Assistant Dean for Curriculum and Teaching; Associate Department Head for Undergraduate Affairs and Teaching Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
“We teach thousands of students in hands-on lab courses each year. Assigning teaching assistants to these labs is a major effort.... The MatchMyLab platform has the potential to be a game changer, making the process easier and more thoughtful.… I’m truly grateful to the MatchMyLab team…”
One of the most meaningful aspects of this project for me has been the opportunity to mentor and work alongside undergraduate collaborators whose contributions have had a lasting and substantial impact on the direction, quality, and scalability of MatchMyLab. Their work helped expand the tool into something capable of supporting large instructional environments and responding to the needs of a much broader group of users. In that way, MatchMyLab has become not only a technical project, but also a collaborative one grounded in mentorship, shared problem-solving, and a commitment to improving how academic systems work for the people involved.
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That growth has also been reflected in the recognition the project has received. MatchMyLab was selected in the Nittany AI Challenge as one of 15 teams out of 40+ to receive prototype funding, and later as one of 10 teams out of 18 to advance to the minimum viable product phase and receive additional funding. The project was also featured in the Penn State Biology Department's newsletter and invited for presentation in the Penn State Biology Seminar Series as a student-driven innovation addressing a major departmental challenge. More importantly, it has generated real interest beyond its original setting, with pilots underway across the Eberly College of Science and interest at additional institutions.