OptRegOptimum Time Schedule Generator and

Registration System for Courses in a College/Unviersity

Along with an optimum Finals Examination Schedule Generator

Quang Tran

CSE 403

Spring 2006

Problem 1

• Current colleges/university time schedule generator takes as input:– Courses to be taught– Instructor to teach the course– Conflicts with interdepartmental/intermajor courses– Classrooms and Lecture Hall availability– Any other resources & administrative constraints

• And generates a time schedule for the courses in the university

• Drawback: No input from students

Problem 2

• Current Finals Examination scheduler takes as input:– A list of courses being taught and its time– Classroom and instructor availability

• And generates a feasible Finals Exam schedule such that there a no conflicts

• Drawback: Students may be assigned a bad Finals Exam schedule– Back to back exams– All exams on the same day

Solution 1

• Take input from students on the preferred times they want to take a certain course

• During registration, allow students to propose new time for a given course

Solution 2

• Generate a Finals Exam schedule that will disperse every student’s exam throughout the finals exam period

Operational Concepts

• Have a web application that replaces the current university’s time schedule system and registration System

• Users: Students, Faculty, and Administration

• Goals: To have a new system that makes everybody happy

• Non-Goals: This is not a Student Services Portal (MyUW) but will only be an add-on

System Requirements

1. Survey from students, staff, and faculty on preferences and constraints of the time schedule is collected

2. A feasible, optimum time schedule is generated3. Faculty and Administration approves the generated

schedule4. The registration process begins for students

1. Students can propose a new time for a given course1. If all constraints satisfied after feedback from other students,

administrators, and faculty course time may change

5. Classes start6. When no changes to student’s schedule are possible,

an optimal finals examination schedule is generated and verified

Sample page to survey time preferences

Sample Registration Process

Added feature from existing registration system

System and Software Architecture

• OptReg will be an add-on to the current university’s system to replace the existing system– Add-on to allow portability to be able to use at

many different colleges/universities

Technology

• ASP .NET, C#, IIS Web Server• No database server needed because information

(e.g. individual student information, course restrictions, etc) required for the registration system will be given by the university in a large text file text file

• Results of registration and finals exam schedule will be exported through a large text file back to university’s sytem

Lifecycle Plan

• Team will consist of– Developers– Researchers– Testers– Algorithm designers

• Deployment/Integration (Includes people from OptReg and University’s technical staff) *

• Pilot Testing at different colleges/universities *• Maintenance*

*Will not be handled in this project

Timeline

• Week 1 will be the completion of the user interface and architecture

• Week 3 will be the completion of the main algorithms and logic of the program to generate the schedule

• Week 6 will be the completion of the registration system

• Week 7 will be the completion of the optimum finals exam schedule

• Final weeks will be for anything else, including testing, example runs,

Feasibility

• Assumptions:– Data taken from university's system will be

through text files

• Risks– Algorithms run too slow– Integration with current university’s system is

hard*– Generated Optimum Time Schedule will not

be better than existing time schedules**Will not be handled in this project