PRISMS / 1-minute brief · 3-minute deep dive
PhD Research & Institutional Scholars Management System
PRISMS is an academic administration project intended to support the lifecycle of PhD scholars, beginning with a thesis submission and upload module and providing a foundation for additional research administration workflows.
Structured digital workflow for PhD administration.
PRISMS is an academic administration project intended to support the lifecycle of PhD scholars, beginning with a thesis submission and upload module and providing a foundation for additional research administration workflows.
Thesis submission module as initial scope
Structured digital upload path for PhD scholars to submit completed dissertation drafts.
Inspect the decision ↗02Institutional Gmail authentication (Intended)
Restricting access to registered research scholars through college email verification.
Inspect the decision ↗03Extensible research lifecycle
Architecting a data foundation to support academic milestones from coursework to degree conferral.
Inspect the decision ↗- Institutional authCollege Gmail login
- Thesis submissionUpload & dissertation metadata
- Review workflowCommittee inspection
- Lifecycle milestonesPlanned future modules
Initial development scope is strictly the thesis submission module.
Current scope & planned lifecycle +
Focuses on solving research administration fragmentation through a centralized digital workflow platform.
- Current thesis submission scope
- Scholars submit dissertation documents with title, abstract, supervisor attribution, and submission timestamps.
- Intended institutional authentication
- OAuth authentication via institutional college Gmail accounts to verify scholar credentials.
- Broader lifecycle milestones (Planned)
- Planned future support for coursework, comprehensive exams, state-of-the-art presentations, open seminars, oral defense, and completed scholar archival.
Initial development scope focuses on the thesis submission module. Planned broader lifecycle modules are future roadmap milestones.
The starting point
Research administration involves multiple stages, academic documents, submissions, reviews, and institutional processes. Managing these workflows without a centralized system can make tracking and coordination difficult for scholars, supervisors, and administrative departments.
PRISMS (PhD Research & Institutional Scholars Management System) is an academic administration project intended to support the lifecycle of PhD scholars, beginning with a thesis submission and upload module and providing a foundation for additional research administration workflows.
The initial development scope focuses on the thesis submission module. PhD scholars should be able to authenticate using their institutional college Gmail accounts and submit their thesis documents through a structured digital workflow.
Developing the initial thesis submission module, institutional authentication workflow, and document management foundation.
01 / Research Administration · Institutional Workflows
Managing research administration workflows.
Creates a structured digital foundation for complex, multi-stage academic processes.
Research administration involves multiple stages, academic documents, submissions, reviews, and institutional processes. Managing these workflows without a centralized system can make tracking and coordination difficult.
PhD research spans several years and involves extensive institutional coordination: coursework completion, comprehensive examinations, seminar evaluations, state-of-the-art presentations, and final thesis review.
Managing these submissions through fragmented manual paperwork or unstructured emails risks lost files, missed deadlines, and poor transparency across academic review committees.
PRISMS addresses this by designing a centralized digital workflow platform dedicated to the lifecycle of institutional scholars.
02 / Document Upload · Workflow Management
Thesis submission module (Current Scope).
Enables PhD scholars to submit thesis documents through a structured digital workflow.
The initial development scope focuses on the thesis submission module. PhD scholars should be able to authenticate using their institutional college Gmail accounts and submit their thesis documents through a structured digital workflow.
The current development scope centers specifically on the thesis submission module. Through this module, PhD scholars can upload completed thesis drafts, provide dissertation metadata, and assign supervisor attributions.
The submission interface gathers required document attachments and logs submission timestamps to establish an authoritative academic audit trail.
Supervisors and department review committees can access the submitted manuscripts through a structured review workflow.
03 / OAuth 2.0 · Institutional Authentication
Institutional Gmail authentication (Intended).
Restricts submission access to authenticated scholars with college email verification.
PhD scholars should be able to authenticate using their institutional college Gmail accounts to verify scholar identity before document submission.
To ensure academic integrity and secure access, PRISMS intends to integrate institutional authentication using college Gmail accounts.
Authentication restricts thesis submission and administrative access exclusively to verified scholars and recognized institutional faculty members.
This institutional login workflow establishes scholar identity upfront, linking each thesis document directly to verified scholar profiles.
04 / Planned Lifecycle Architecture
Planned broader research lifecycle.
Architectural plan to support research milestones from coursework to degree completion.
Develop the thesis submission module as the foundation of a larger PhD administration platform. Structure the system so future modules can support additional stages of the research lifecycle: PhD coursework, Comprehensive examination, State-of-the-art examination, Fellowship enhancement, Open seminar, Final evaluation and oral examination, Certificate issuance, and Archival of completed PhD scholars.
The thesis submission module is conceived as the initial foundation for a comprehensive PhD lifecycle administration platform.
Planned broader lifecycle workflows include: PhD coursework tracking, Comprehensive examination registration and grading, State-of-the-art examination records, Fellowship enhancement processing, Open seminar management, Final evaluation and oral examination coordination, Certificate issuance, and Archival of completed PhD scholars.
These milestones represent the planned future architecture of PRISMS as development expands beyond the initial thesis submission scope.
What I take from it.
PRISMS demonstrates how software engineering can bring structure and transparency to complex academic research administration.
Focusing on the thesis submission module provides a solid starting point that can expand into a comprehensive platform for institutional scholars.
Thesis submission module is the current development scope. Broader lifecycle modules represent planned future milestones.