📌 Introduction
In today’s digital-first education landscape, students and faculty expect instant access to information—course details, departments, faculty contacts, and more. But instead of navigating complex ERP menus, what if they could just ask a chatbot?
In this article, I’ll walk you through how I built a college chatbot using:
- 🧠 LLAMA3:8b: a powerful open-source language model
- ⚙️ Ollama: to run it locally on your machine
- 💻 ASP.NET MVC: integrated directly with your college ERP
- 🔧 Function Calling: to fetch live data from your SQL Server database
✅ No internet required
✅ No OpenAI API key
✅ 100% private, local, and customizable
🧠 Why LLaMA + Ollama?
Most AI chatbots rely on cloud APIs like OpenAI’s GPT or Google Bard. However, LLAMA3:8b is a fully open-source large language model you can run locally using Ollama, a lightweight inference engine.
Key Benefits
- ✅ No recurring API costs
- ✅ Full data privacy - nothing leaves your system
- ✅ Complete control - tailor it to your institution’s needs
🏫 Use Case: A Smart Chatbot for College ERP
Imagine a student visiting your college ERP and asking:
- “What are the UG programs available?”
- “How many students are enrolled in BCA?”
- “Can you list all the departments?”
Instead of navigating dropdowns and reports, the chatbot understands the query and returns accurate, real-time data from your database.
⚙️ How It Works: The Workflow
Here’s a simplified architecture:
- User submits a question on the chatbot interface.
- The query is sent to LLAMA3:8b running via Ollama (localhost).
- The model determines whether a backend function is needed.
- If required, it responds with a function call (e.g., GetUGCourses()).
- Your .NET MVC app executes the function to fetch data from SQL Server.
- The chatbot displays the result to the user.
🎯 Real Example: Answering a Student’s Question
Question
> “What are the UG programs available in this college?”
LLaMA Output
> Call function: GetUGCourses
Backend Action
Execute GetUGCourses() in your controller or service layer, returning course names.
Final Chatbot Response
> “The UG programs offered are: BCA, BCom, BA English, BBA.”
📊 What Kind of Data Can It Fetch?
| User Query |
Backend Function |
Data Source |
| List all departments |
GetDepartments() |
Department table |
| Faculty in Commerce |
GetFacultyByDepartment("Commerce") |
Faculty table |
| Total students in CS |
GetStudentCountByCourse("CS") |
Student table |
| Fee due date |
GetFeeDeadline() |
FeeStructure table |
| Principal’s name |
GetPrincipalInfo() |
Admin table |
🧰 What is Function Calling?
Function calling is like giving your LLM a set of "tools" it can use when it doesn’t know something directly. Instead of hallucinating, it triggers a function you’ve defined.
In our case
- LLaMA knows a predefined list of functions.
- It decides which one matches the user’s question.
- Your application executes that function and returns the real data.
🌐 Front-End Experience
The front-end UI is lightweight and intuitive:
- 📥 An input box for the user’s question
- 💬 A response panel that displays answers
- 💡 Feels like talking to a real assistant — but powered by your own ERP data
Why This Approach is a Game-Changer
- Customizable: Tailored to your college’s structure and workflows.
- Offline-first: No internet dependency.
- Private: All data stays on-premises.
- Cost-effective: No external APIs or licensing.
- Fast: Local inference gives instant responses.
- Scalable: Easily extend with more functions (exams, hostel, transport, etc.).
Key Benefits for Your College ERP
| Feature |
Description |
| 🎯 Accurate |
Real-time answers from your actual ERP database |
| 🔐 Private |
No external servers or data leaks |
| 💸 Cost-Free |
Zero recurring fees or cloud costs |
| ⚡ Fast |
Local processing = lightning speed |
| 🧩 Flexible |
Add new functions and domains as needed. |
Conclusion
I built this chatbot to make our college ERP system more student- and staff-friendly. With LLAMA3:8b running locally via Ollama, and ASP.NET MVC handling the logic and function calling, this solution is:
- Smart
- Fast
- Private
- Cost-free
Students, parents, faculty, and admins can now ask natural questions and get instant answers — no manual searching required.