1 research outputs found
Integer Linear Programming for the Tutor Allocation Problem: A Practical Case in a British University
In the Tutor Allocation Problem, the objective is to assign a set of tutors
to a set of workshops in order to maximize tutors' preferences. The problem is
solved every year by many universities, each having its own specific set of
constraints. In this work, we study the tutor allocation in the School of
Mathematics at the University of Edinburgh, and solve it with an integer linear
programming model. We tested the model on the 2019/2020 case, obtaining a
significant improvement with respect to the manual assignment in use. Further
tests on randomly created instances show that the model can be used to address
cases of broad interest. We also provide meaningful insights on how input
parameters, such as the number of workshop locations and the length of the
tutors' preference list, might affect the performance of the model and the
average number of preferences satisfied.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure