3/30/07
3/25/07
BU 602 Team Project
A major theme in this course is optimization. There are many optimization problems faced by industry, hospitals, non-profit organizations, and government today. Some of these problems include:
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Airline crew pair optimization
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Emergency response vehicle dispatch system optimization
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Optimal staff schedules, in particular, for organizations such as hospitals that require staff 24/7
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Resource allocations
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Optimal vehicle travel route problems
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Optimize voice and data travel through a network
Working in groups of 2 or 3, prepare a 10-15 minute PowerPoint presentation about an optimization problem experienced by a real world organization. The organization can be a company or a non-profit organization. You may use a current or past employer or research an organization that has had an optimization problem. The presentation should be applications oriented, not theoretical. In your presentation address the following points:
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Describe the problem that is being optimized
Employee scheduling; using rosters solved by approximations of number of employees on off-shifts & on-shifts; produces inherent problems with scheduling
e.g. assignment of nurses to shifts in hospital, workers o cash registers in a large store, phone operators to shifts and stations in service-oriented call center
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Discuss the constraints involved with the problem
Timetabling of employees is a task that usually takes place regularly, each month including aspects of shift working, manning demands, union agreements, and individual requests
Skejby University Hospital, Denmark
B1-ward nursing staff of 45 nurses, nursing helping staff, and students
Common Duties:
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Night Duties
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Day Duties
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Evening Duties
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Off-Duties
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11 Hour Rest
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<= 6 Duties between Off-Duties
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<=4 Night Duties in a row
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>= 2 Day Duties in a row
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Sunday Duties = Extra time off
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Bonus Time Off
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Individual Preference Requests (may be impossible to fulfill)
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How was the optimization model developed?
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What data was collected to develop the model?
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How was the data collected?
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What were the limitations of the data collection methods?
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Describe the optimization model was initially used to solve the problem?
Cyclic roster patterns of shifts-off and shifts-on (or days-off and days-on)
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How was the optimization model tested?
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What problems were revealed during the testing phase?
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How were they corrected?
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How is the model currently used to solve the problem?
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What software is currently used to solve the problem? What are the benefits and features of the software?
TRAPS is a super class of the RAPS (Resource Allocation Problem Specification) language developed in the Computer Science department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. It is a powerful tool for solving resource allocation and scheduling problems and it can be successfully used in many fields of human activities. TRAPS enables the specification of a scheduling problem by adding built in time operators, on top of existing terms for resources, activities, allocation rules and constraints. In this way TRAPS provides a convenient knowledge acquisition tool. The language syntax is powerful and allows the specification of rules and constraints which are difficult to formulate with traditional approaches, and it also supports the specification of various control and backtracking strategies.
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What are the limitations of the optimization techniques (software as well as model)?
Scheduling people at the B1-ward considered to be impossible to fulfill because of individual requests, which prevents the use of natural rotation patterns as a means for developing a perfect timetable
Four levels of priorities are introduced to define the feasibility of the problem where the 2 most important priority levels are for feasibility issues
For instance, an under-staffed ward presents a problem where the most important constraints are not satisfiable
Division within union agreement and manning demands which place them into 2 distinct weight levels ensures that only some of the 11 duties (constraints) will not be satisfied
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Identify some other areas for further research
http://www.cs.bgu.ac.il/~am/ETP_Home/Main_Page.html
What's new? - Ongoing research
- WWW system for generation and solution of ETPs. The system (currently under construction) will provide a GUI for generating or modelling instances of the class of ETPs described in the file format document. A library of algorithms for solving ETPs will also be provided.
Former student projects
- WWW system (incomplete) for modelling and solving simple ETPs. Although the specific class of problems is restricted to some quite trivial constraint types, the system provides a good introduction to some of the typical aspects of employee timetabling. The solution algorithm is based on tabu search and the material also provides a description of an efficient implementation of this algorithm that takes advantage of the characteristics of the constraint types and the neighbourhood function.
WWW system for generation of random, simple ETPs. The site includes a description of the basic constraint types, the principles of using constraint networks for employee timetabling, and finally a discussion on using a forward-checking with conflict-directed backjumping algorithm for ETPs represented as constraint networks.
Relevant web sites
- EURO/WATT. Working group on Automated TimeTabling.
ASAP. Automated Scheduling and Planning Group, University of Nottingham, UK.
The Collection of Computer Science Bibliographies. University of Karlsruhe, Germany.
3/7/07
East Jersey Olde Towne Village
The Village is a collection of original, replica and reconstructed 18th and 19th century structures. While most of the buildings have been relocated to the site, others were constructed here. They represent the vernacular architecture typical of farm and merchant communities, once found in central New Jersey.
The Village functions as an educational model, dedicated to teaching the history, traditions, folk arts and craftsmanship of the people who lived and worked throughout the region. It offers public programs in the highest standard of excellence, among them: educational workshops, seminars and lectures, in-service training for teachers, exhibitions, concerts, storytelling session, community gatherings and theme based projects.
Visit East Jersey Olde Town Village
Directions:
Johnson Park
3/5/07
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