A Compromise Programming for Multi-Objective Task Assignment Problem

Abstract

The problem of scheduling is an area that has attracted a lot of attention from researchers for many years. Its goal is to optimize resources in the system. The lecturer’s assigning task is an example of the timetabling problem, a class of scheduling. This study introduces a mathematical model to assign constrained tasks (the time and required skills) to university lecturers. Our model is capable of generating a calendar that maximizes faculty expectations. The formulated problem is in the form of a multi-objective problem that requires the trade-off between two or more conflicting objectives to indicate the optimal solution. We use the compromise programming approach to the multi-objective problem to solve this. We then proposed the new version of the Genetic Algorithm to solve the introduced model. Finally, we tested the model and algorithm with real scheduling data, including 139 sections of 17 subjects to 27 lecturers in 10 timeslots. Finally, a web application supports the decision-maker to visualize and manipulate the obtained results.

Lecturer-Course Assignment Model in National Joint Courses Program to Improve Education Quality and Lecturers’ Time Preference

“…The assignment model in [8] was a multi objective lecturers-courses assignment model. This work was conducted based on case in computing fundamental department at FPT University in Vietnam.…”

“…Choosing inappropriate constraint can introduce new problem in the assignment model, such as the unserved class due to course preference constraint. Work by [8] assumed the timeslot and course preferences as hard constraints. However, the drawback has not been addressed well as it failed to explain the logical consequence in the possibility of the unserved classes due to the course preference.…”

“…Meanwhile, this research proposed a model that combines, simplifies, and modifies the models in [8] and [13]. The purpose of the model is to have assignment model that comply with the requirements of the voluntary based national joint courses program, where the timeslot and course preferences are the hard constraints.…”

“…The first reason is that previous studies assumed that the face-to-face approach is applied to need physical rooms [6,7]. Secondly, many lecturer-courses assignment studies were conducted in a small environment (i.e., study program, faculty, or university), where the relationship between the institution and its lecturers is authoritative, as reported by Ngo, Jaafar, Aziz, and Anh [8]. In this system, although lecturers can propose their preferred timeslots or days, in the end, they must follow a schedule determined by their institution [9].…”

“…There are several reasons for adopting the CTA. First, metaheuristic methods were widely used in many education assignment problem studies, such as simulated annealing [12], genetic algorithm [8], branch-and-bound [13], tabu search [11], and so on. Second, simulated annealing is a metaheuristic method that focuses on achieving global optimization by avoiding the optimal local trap [14].…”