Defence of Master of Technology (MTech) in Software Engineering - University of Buea
Defended with the Highest Distinction at College of Technology (COT)
Wednesday, 29 July 2026, marked the close of one of the most demanding chapters of Nfor Nde Nyambi's academic journey. At the College of Technology (COT), University of Buea, he formally defended his Master of Technology (MTech) in Software Engineering before an academic jury, and walked away with the highest possible grade the programme awards.
Research Topic:
"The Design and Implementation of an AI-Powered CRM Integration Chatbot, Interaction and Personalized Recommendation Engines."
What the Research Set Out to Solve:
The thesis addressed a problem familiar to any organization managing large volumes of customer or student relationships: how to combine a traditional CRM workflow with real-time conversational support and recommendations that actually reflect each user's history, rather than generic, one-size-fits-all suggestions. Nfor's research proposed an architecture where a chatbot is not bolted onto a CRM as an afterthought, but integrated directly into its data layer, so every interaction the system handles can inform the recommendations it generates next.
From Research to a Working System:
Over several months, the work moved through architectural design, full-stack implementation, iterative testing, machine learning integration, and performance benchmarking. The result was EduPulse, a production-grade platform built on Next.js and TypeScript for the frontend and API layer, Prisma ORM over MySQL for structured data, and Python-driven machine learning models handling the recommendation and chatbot-routing logic. EduPulse was designed to manage the full lifecycle of an academic CRM: student directories, financial clearance tracking, marketing campaigns and notifications, an automated support and ticketing system, and a resource repository, all wired into a single AI-assisted interface.
The Defense:
Before the jury, Nfor presented and justified each architectural decision, from database schema design to how the recommendation engine weighs signals to personalize its output, and fielded detailed technical questioning on the system's design trade-offs. The jury's assessment reflected the depth of the implementation: the highest possible grade awarded under the MTech programme.
Beyond the Grade:
For Nfor, the defense capped a period defined by late nights, difficult debugging sessions, and a great deal of revision, alongside consistent support from supervisors, lecturers, and peers at the University of Buea. The full 60+ page thesis document and the presentation slides used during the defense are available below for anyone who wants to go deeper into the system's architecture, methodology, or evaluation results.