Student Research Symposium Program Portal: Submission #113

First Name: Matthew
Last Name: Brady
Pronouns: He/Him
FSU Student Email: mjb19g@fsu.edu
Student Photo: https://pc.fsu.edu/system/files/webform/research_portal/8136/Professional_Headshot.jpg
Major(s): Computer Science
Student Bio:
Hello All! My name is Matthew Brady and I am a computer Science Major from Stuart, Florida. Some of my hobbies include skateboarding, soccer, Video games, and playing guitar! While studying at Florida State University, my academic focus has centered around user interface and user experience (UI/UX) design, particularly through front-end technologies such as JavaScript, CSS, and HTML. I’ve also developed a strong interest in Python for web scraping and automation, using tools like BeautifulSoup and Selenium to extract and organize data from dynamic web environments. Additionally, I enjoy exploring C++ through game design projects, where I apply core programming concepts to interactive applications. My coursework and personal projects have further deepened my understanding of data structures, algorithms, and object-oriented programming, forming a strong foundation for software development across a variety of domains.

Poster Title: Scrape and Search: Your API Web Finder
Abstract:
APIs are crucial for modern application development, but discovering and accessing them efficiently remains difficult. This project introduces an automated API indexing and search platform designed to simplify that process. Using Python’s BeautifulSoup and Selenium libraries, the system scrapes public websites to extract key API information such as names, descriptions, and documentation links. The gathered data is organized into a searchable index, which powers a user-friendly web interface. Users can input keywords and receive quick, relevant API results—similar to using a traditional search engine. This approach helps developers find APIs faster and with greater accuracy. By combining static HTML parsing with dynamic web automation, the platform ensures broad and effective data collection. Early results show that this hybrid scraping method successfully builds a reliable API dataset. Planned improvements include adding ranking algorithms, collecting user feedback, and expanding data sources for wider coverage. This project demonstrates how web scraping and automation can address real-world problems in information retrieval, making API discovery more accessible and efficient for developers.

Research Mentor Name: Karen Works
Research Mentor's College (or High School): N/A
Research Mentor's Department (or Subject): Computer Science
Research Mentor's Email: keworks@pc.fsu.edu
Additional Research Mentor(s): {Empty}
Co-presenter(s): {Empty}
Keywords: Web Scraping, API, Indexing
Poster Session/Number: C -3 R- 5
Work: Exploratory (the research question has been identified and design of approach is outlined)
Presentation Modality: Face to Face Poster session
Poster PDF: https://pc.fsu.edu/system/files/webform/research_portal/8136/Matthew_Brady_FSU_2025.pdf
Poster Thumbnail: {Empty}
I will be printing my poster: No
Year: 2025
Annual description: 5th annual Undergraduate Research Symposium, April 17, 2025
Update URL: https://pc.fsu.edu/student-research/symposium/research-symposium-program-portal?element_parents=elements/student_photo&ajax_form=1&_wrapper_format=drupal_ajax&token=vSGSH5DzYkule1SHos43RPKqX2cxjE7rUr4T4CYU7Jo
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