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[Class Report] Systems Development (Year 3) — Week 50~ Final Integrated Project Design: Bringing Everything Learned into One System ~

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[Class Report] Systems Development (Year 3) — Week 50

~ Final Integrated Project Design: Bringing Everything Learned into One System ~

In Week 50, we moved into the final project design phase, integrating everything we have learned so far—
API integration, asynchronous design, generative AI, and secure design—into a single system.

Over the next several weeks, as the culmination of three years of learning, we will push the project forward with the goal of designing a system at a level that could realistically be operated in the real world.

■ Teacher’s Introduction: “From Today, This Is a Real Project”

Mr. Tanaka:
“Up to now, we’ve learned each technology separately.
Starting today, you’ll combine them all into a ‘real’ system design.”

He explained the theme of the final project as follows:

“Design and implement a practical system that can be safely operated, leveraging external services and AI.”

■ Required Elements of the Final Project

This project must include all of the following technical elements:

Required elements

  • Integration with at least one external API
  • Multiple APIs or asynchronous processing
  • A generative AI feature
  • Error handling
  • Log design
  • AI safety design (e.g., output validation)
  • Documentation and operational design

Mr. Tanaka: “Not just something that works, but something that is safe to use.”

■ Exercise ①: Choosing the Project Theme

First, each team decided on its project theme.

Example themes that were proposed

  • Learning Support AI (summarization + translation API)
  • Event Info Aggregation App (news API + AI summarization)
  • Library Book Recommendation System (book API + AI-written descriptions)
  • Weather-Linked Task Manager (weather API + AI advice)
  • Study Question Support (AI + dictionary API)

Student A: “It seems better if AI isn’t the main character, but a ‘supporting function.’”

■ Exercise ②: Creating a System Architecture Diagram

Next, we used the design principles we’ve learned to create a system architecture diagram.

Basic structure:

UI
 ↓
Application Service
 ↓
External API Client
 ↓
AI Client
 ↓
External services

Additional components were also added:

  • Log management
  • Caching
  • Fallback handling
  • Safety validation layer

Student B: “All the knowledge that was separate until now is finally connecting!”

■ Exercise ③: Organizing Use Cases

We整理ed the main user interactions of the system.

Example (event information app)

  1. Fetch event information via a news API
  2. Generate a summary using AI
  3. Display it on the user interface
  4. Retry the API if an error occurs
  5. If AI fails, display the original article

Mr. Tanaka: “Write your use cases including failures.”

■ Exercise ④: Risks and Safety Design

We applied the safety design concepts learned in Week 49 to the project.

Items we examined

  • Countermeasures for AI misinformation
  • System behavior when an API goes down
  • Handling of personal information
  • Scope of log retention
  • Displaying terms of use

Student C: “It’s hard to think about technical design and safety design at the same time.”

■ Exercise ⑤: Creating a Development Schedule

Finally, we created a simple development schedule for the project.

Development phases

  1. Finalize the design
  2. Implement API integration
  3. Implement AI features
  4. Integration testing
  5. Safety checks
  6. Prepare the presentation

Mr. Tanaka: “The most important thing in a project is finishing it.”

■ Class-wide Takeaways

  • A system is a collection of technologies
  • AI is “one component” of the system
  • Without a solid design, implementation becomes confusing
  • Safety design cannot be added as an afterthought

■ The Teacher’s Closing Words

“This project is an opportunity for you to express what you’ve learned over three years as a single system.

Development isn’t just writing programs.

  • Design
  • Safety
  • Operations
  • Explanation

All of it together is ‘systems development.’”

■ Homework (Due Next Week)

  1. Create a detailed design document for your project
  2. Organize the API specifications
  3. Draft an AI prompt design plan
  4. Create a risk countermeasure table

■ Next Week Preview: Project Implementation Begins

Starting next week, we will move into the implementation phase of the final project.

Based on the design, we will build the API integration, AI features, and safety design into actual code.

Week 50 was an important milestone: the final project integrating three years of learning officially began.
Students have taken their first step into the challenge of unifying their skills into a single, coherent system.

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