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A comment on Ask HN: What algorithms should I research to code a conference scheduling app.

Re:Ask HN: What algorithms should I research to code a confe... by larose on Saturday September 16, 2017 @10:18PM (#15267902)
Your problem is a scheduling problem. It has been well studied in operations research [1] / mathematical optimization [2].

Basically, you formulate your problem as a integer programming model [3] and use a solver [4] to solve it. You should check PuLP [5].

You can also ask your question at OR Exchange [6].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operations_research

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_optimization

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integer_programming

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_optimization_software

[5] https://pythonhosted.org/PuLP/

[6] https://www.or-exchange.org/

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: What algorithms should I research to code a confe... by xoroshiro on Sunday September 17, 2017 @09:25AM (#15269486)
After this, do a bit of research on goal programming or other approaches to multiobjective optimization. It could really help and depending on the approach, it's not that hard. It usually just adds a bunch of constraints or some precompuations to an already existing set of in/equalities for your model.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: What algorithms should I research to code a confe... by ahazred8ta on Thursday September 21, 2017 @01:25AM (#15300787)
ALLOCATING CONFERENCE DELEGATES TO WORKSHOPS: A SPECIAL TIMETABLING PROBLEM -- "The problem of assigning delegates to workshops at a conference can be formulated as a timetabling problem. Such an assignment must take into account the preferences of the delegates, as well as the number of participants each workshop can accommodate. This paper will report on a heuristic solution technique for a special case of such a problem."

http://orion.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/470

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: What algorithms should I research to code a confe... by viertaxa on Saturday September 16, 2017 @10:35PM (#15267958)
Thank you for the detailed response!
[ Parent | on HN ]