Programación del Fixture de la Segunda División del Fútbol de Chile mediante Investigación de Operaciones

Presentamos en este trabajo la aplicación de técnicas de Investigación de Operaciones a la programación del fixture de la Segunda División del fútbol de Chile. Este fixture debe cumplir una serie de condiciones solicitadas por la Asociación Nacional de Fútbol Profesional (ANFP), entidad que organiza el torneo. El criterio geográfico es particularmente importante, debido a que la disposición de algunos equipos en lugares extremos del país implica largos desplazamientos, a menudo realizados por vía terrestre. Abordamos el problema mediante un modelo de programación lineal entera que define cuándo y dónde se juega cada partido del torneo, sujeto a que todas las condiciones se cumplen. Para las instancias más difíciles, desarrollamos un modelo adicional también de programación lineal entera que genera patrones de localías y los asigna a los equipos, previo a la ejecución del modelo que define la programación de los partidos. Los fixtures así generados han sido exitosamente utilizados en los cinco torneos de Segunda División que se han disputado entre 2007 y 2010, reemplazando la metodología aleatoria que la ANFP utilizaba anteriormente. Durante este período, el tipo de torneo ha sufrido diversas modificaciones, incluyendo un cuádruple round-robin y un torneo en dos etapas que considera fases regionales y nacionales. Hemos debido entonces adaptar nuestros modelos temporada tras temporada, según el tipo de torneo. Esta aplicación marca un nuevo avance en el uso de Investigación de Operaciones para la gestión del fútbol chileno, que se suma a otros proyectos desarrollados en la misma línea en los últimos años.Fil: Duran, Guillermo Alfredo. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Matemática; Argentina. Universidad de Chile; Chile. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Guajardo, Mario. Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration; NoruegaFil: Wolf Yadlin, Rodrigo. Universidad de Chile; Chil

Operations research techniques for scheduling chile's second division soccer league

In this paper, we use operations research (OR) techniques to schedule the Second Division of the Chilean professional soccer league. The solution must satisfy a series of conditions requested by league officials. Because the teams generally travel long distances by bus, geographical restrictions are particularly important. We specify the scheduling problem and solve it using an integer linear programming (ILP) model that defines when and where each match is played, subject to constraints. For the most difficult instances, we formulate a second ILP model that generates home-away patterns and assigns them to the teams; we then run the model, which determines the match schedule. Chilean league officials have successfully used the models to schedule all five Second Division tournaments between 2007 and 2010, replacing the random scheduling methodology that they used previously. Since 2007, the two formulations have been adapted to various formats with which the Second Division has experimented; these include a quadruple round robin and a two-phase tournament with zonal and national phases. The application we present is one of a number of such projects that the authors and their colleagues developed over the past few years, and it represents an expansion of the use of OR techniques for managing tasks in Chilean soccer.Fil: Duran, Guillermo Alfredo. Universidad de Chile; Chile. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Investigaciones Matemáticas "Luis A. Santaló". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Matemáticas "Luis A. Santaló"; ArgentinaFil: Guajardo, Mario. NHH Norwegian School of Economics; NoruegaFil: Wolf Yadlin, Rodrigo. Universidad de Chile; Chil

A mathematical programming approach to applicant selection for a degree program based on affirmative action

In 2007, the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Chile allied with a major Chilean mining company to inaugurate a master's degree program in globalization management. The program's objective is to address the challenges Chile faces in its development of human and social capital by training young professionals. This paper describes the use of mathematical programming models in the program's applicant selection procedure for the first three entering classes, subject to equity criteria on gender, regional origin, and socioeconomic background. The models generated robust solutions in minutes, an achievement practically impossible using manual methods. The application's success demonstrates how mathematical programming and operations research can contribute to social policy.Fil: Duran, Guillermo Alfredo. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Matemática; Argentina. Universidad de Chile; Chile. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Wolf Yadlin, Rodrigo. Universidad de Chile; Chil

A Framework for Scheduling Professional Sports Leagues

This paper introduces a framework for a highly constrained sports scheduling problem which is modeled from the requirements of various professional sports leagues. We define a sports scheduling problem, introduce the necessary terminology and detail the constraints of the problem. A set of artificial and real-world instances derived from the actual problems solved for the professional sports league owners are proposed. We publish the best solutions we have found, and invite the sports scheduling community to find solutions to the unsolved instances. We believe that the instances will help researchers to test the value of their solution methods. The instances are available online

Operations research transforms the scheduling of chilean soccer leagues and south American world cup qualifiers

For the past 12 years, the Chilean Professional Soccer Association (ANFP) hasapplied operations research (OR) techniques to schedule soccer leagues in Chile. Usinginteger programming-based methods, the ANFP decides which matches are played ineach round, taking into account various objectives, such as holding down costs and ensur-ing engaging tournaments for the fans. It has scheduled more than 50 tournaments usingthis approach, resulting in an estimated direct economic impact of about $59 million,including reductions in television broadcaster operating costs, growth in soccer pay-television subscriptions, increased ticket revenue, and lower travel costs for the teams. Thisapplication of OR has also had significant noneconomic impacts. First, the incorporationof team requirements and various sporting criteria has improved process transparencyand schedule fairness, increasing fans’ interest in local professional tournaments; second,because of the high portability of these techniques, they have been used successfullyto schedule sports leagues in other countries (examples include volleyball and basket-ball in Argentina, and the South American qualifiers for the 2018 Soccer World Cup).Furthermore, the models and methods used in this scheduling application have beendisseminated widely, helping to promote OR as an effective tool for addressing practicalproblems. Our outreach activities have reached thousands of high school and universitystudents in four countries and a more general audience of millions of television viewersand Internet users