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It really helps to have a hard problem to solve in the first place. Try scheduling all the classes in a university timetable into available classrooms, subject
by sevensor 2y ago
It really helps to have a hard problem to solve in the first place. Try scheduling all the classes in a university timetable into available classrooms, subject to constraints like maximum seating and not double booking an instructor. Now try to add constraints like “art classes must be in a studio.” Then to make it really fun, “no more than one fourth of the Electrical Engineering classes may be taught outside of the EE building.”
- mkl 2y agoAnd even better, consecutive tutorials must be in the same room or nearby rooms (tutors and teaching materials can't teleport), and there are two or three simultaneous sequences of tutorials in big courses (so consecutive tutorials actually can be in distant rooms if they're in different sequences), and the number of students requires that the university's rooms be in use 90% of the time, and medium to large lecture theatres must be in use 98% of the time. This is an annual battle I engage in. The software sucks.
- sevensor 2y agoIt does, but better scheduling will only go so far at an institution that underinvests in classroom space. Between “looks fancy” and “meets instructional needs,” donors prefer to have their names on “looks fancy” every time.
- mkl 2y agoIt's a public university, donors are not a significant source of funding, and government funding has not increased commensurately with the number of students, which has gone up dramatically in recent years (mainly due to relative cost of living, so no guarantee it will last).