On the assignment of students to topics: A Variable Neighborhood Search approach

作     者：Geiger, Martin Josef Wenger, Wolf 

作者机构：Production and Logistics Management Department University of Hohenheim 70593 Stuttgart Germany 

出 版 物：《Socio-Economic Planning Sciences》 (Socio-Econ. Plann. Sci.)

年 卷 期：2010年第44卷第1期

页      面：25-34页

学科分类：12[管理学] 03[法学] 030301[法学-社会学] 0303[法学-社会学] 1204[管理学-公共管理] 1202[管理学-工商管理] 1201[管理学-管理科学与工程(可授管理学、工学学位)] 0201[经济学-理论经济学] 0705[理学-地理学] 0813[工学-建筑学] 0714[理学-统计学（可授理学、经济学学位）] 0701[理学-数学] 0833[工学-城乡规划学] 

主　　题：Lecturer-student assignment problem Multi-objective optimization Variable Neighborhood Search 

摘      要：This article presents a study of a practical assignment problem found in teaching within higher education. Here, students are assigned to scientific topics for which written papers must be submitted. Often, preferences across topics exist among other side constraints that should be considered in solving the problem of interest. Characterizing attributes of real-world problems were studied for scientific departments in Economics and Business Administration at German universities by sending out 800 questionnaires, and analyzing the 203 responses. Based on earlier studies, a Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) approach was formulated to solve the resulting assignment problem. Several neighborhood search operators were tested, and numerical results are reported for a range of problem scenarios taken from real-world cases. It was observed that VNS leads to superior results vs. single operator local search approaches. Furthermore, we were able to show that in the studied problem, the effectiveness of certain neighborhoods was, to a large extent, dependent on the structures of the underlying problem. An extension of the problem was formulated by integrating a second objective function, which simultaneously balances the workload of staff members while maximizing student utility. The VNS approach was implemented in a computer system, available free of charge, providing decision support for selected other institutions within higher education. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.