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Practice Summary: Seminar Assignments in a University—MATLAB-Based Decision Support

Author

Listed:
  • Andreas Dellnitz

    (Department of Business Administration, Leibniz University of Applied Sciences, 30539 Hannover, Germany)

  • Damian Pozo

    (Department of Business Administration and Economics, FernUniversitat in Hagen, 58084 Hagen, Germany)

  • Jochen Bauer

    (Department of Business Administration and Economics, FernUniversitat in Hagen, 58084 Hagen, Germany)

  • Andreas Kleine

    (Department of Business Administration and Economics, FernUniversitat in Hagen, 58084 Hagen, Germany)

Abstract

Universities follow a long tradition of assigning students to courses based on student preferences while taking into account constraints such as the rooms to be used. In this context, theoretical approaches aid us in developing algorithms that can be helpful in practice. Our contribution to this subject is a practice summary in which we discuss the most important findings of a project to develop a MATLAB-based stand-alone software system to solve the seminar assignment problem at the FernUniversität in Hagen, Germany. The use of our software at three departments has already enabled annual savings of nearly 20,000 euros in personnel costs, which corresponds to a reduction of around 500 person-hours per year. Apart from important technical aspects of our work, the reported savings potential provides valuable information for making decisions on future similar software projects.

Suggested Citation

  • Andreas Dellnitz & Damian Pozo & Jochen Bauer & Andreas Kleine, 2023. "Practice Summary: Seminar Assignments in a University—MATLAB-Based Decision Support," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 53(4), pages 307-311, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orinte:v:53:y:2023:i:4:p:307-311
    DOI: 10.1287/inte.2023.1157
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Geiger, Martin Josef & Wenger, Wolf, 2010. "On the assignment of students to topics: A Variable Neighborhood Search approach," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 25-34, March.
    2. Krumke, Sven O. & Thielen, Clemens, 2013. "The generalized assignment problem with minimum quantities," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 228(1), pages 46-55.
    3. Gerardo Gonzalez & Christopher Richards & Alexandra Newman, 2018. "Optimal Course Scheduling for United States Air Force Academy Cadets," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 48(3), pages 217-234, June.
    4. J. Kennington & Z. Wang, 1992. "A Shortest Augmenting Path Algorithm for the Semi-Assignment Problem," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 40(1), pages 178-187, February.
    5. Andreas Kleine & Andreas Dellnitz, 2017. "Allocation of seminar applicants," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 87(7), pages 927-941, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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