Class Schedualing Algorithms Worksheet

Classroom SchedulingThere are 2 main sections to this application; administration and generation. Administration would set
the rules, classes, professors, rooms and other settings and configurations for the application.
Generation would generate a schedule of professors teaching classes in given rooms given the rules and
constraints.
Administration
Some items would need to evolve from semester to semester, while others would mostly remain
unchanged for longer periods of time.
Each semester, rules, classes, professors and other items may need to be copied from a previous
semester.
Classes, professors, and rooms are fairly straight forward. They just need creat/edit/update/delete
functionality. Classes may include the section for each class as an atomic item, or the class may have
sub items to represent the sections.
The administrator will assign professors to teach certain classes, so the classroom scheduling will be
combinatorial of Class/Professors X room X time.
Rules
The rules will need to be much more dynamic. Since rules have to be very flexible, it may need its own
rule language to be defined, or the design should include plug-ins to allow quick and easy addition of
new situations. Either way proper design patterns should be employed.
Rules have varying degrees of granularity to be applied. A rule may be that Teacher X does not want to
teach Class Z after 7pm on M/W/ or Fridays. The rule could also be relaxed to simply say that no teacher
should teach any class after 7pm on M/W/F.
Types of rules
Intra Class/Teacher/Room Rules
Intra Class/Teacher/Room Rules are rules that do not involve other combinations of classes, teachers
and rooms.
Examples of rules
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Teacher X does not want to teach on M/W/F before 4, or on T/TH after 5
Inter Class/Teacher/Room Rules
Inter Class/Teacher/Room Rules are rules that do not involve other combinations of classes, teachers
and rooms.
Examples of rules
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Teacher Y cannot teach 3 classes back to back
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Class Z should not be at the same time as Class Y ( this may be a specific section or all sections )
Class Z should follow Class Y (this may be a specific section or all sections)
Teacher X and Teacher Y should teach on the same days or times preferable.
Rule weighting
Some rules can be relaxed if necessary, so a weighting system may need to be incorporated. An infinite
weight might indicate the rule has to be enforced and no schedule can ever violate this rule. A low
number would indicate that it’s not desirable, but we could allow this under some circumstances. When
comparing different schedules, a lower total weighted value would therefore be the more appropriate
schedule.
Generate Schedule
When all the rules a given, the user can begin generating schedules. Since this will likely be a timeconsuming process the scheduler should likely save the state of a given job. That way if the process
needs to stop then it could restart where it left off. The administrator may want to be able to view
schedules that are created as the process begins running.
Stretch Goals
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Distributed processing to speed the lookup through the search space
Containerization. Being able to spin up 50 servers to work in a distributed manner could help
solve the problem quickly.
Multiple users with different views and responsibilities. Some users may only be able to view
the completed schedule. Others may only be able to edit classes etc.