From Construction Sites to Classrooms: How an AI Recommendation System Teaches Data-Driven Decisions

Last autumn, I took students to a construction site for social practice. Project Manager Old Zhang pointed at the wall covered with tender announcements and said his company spends three or four hours every day scouring various government platforms and commercial websites for suitable projects, missing opportunities if they blink. He casually asked, "You guys working on AI, can you help us build a smart filter?" At the time, the students looked at each other blankly, unsure where to start. It wasn't until recently, when I saw Cascade, a startup, secure $3.5 million in seed funding using AI to help construction firms find projects, that I realized this scenario is exactly the real-world case our classroom needs most.