SBIR Phase I: Optimal Enterprise Timetabling for Academic Institutions

SBIR 第一阶段：学术机构的最佳企业时间表

• 批准号: 0945559
• 负责人: Ronda Potter
• 金额: $ 14.15万
• 依托单位: Glastonbury Musings Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-01-01 至 2010-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0945559&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Optimal; Enterprise; Timetabling

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I research project is aimed at providing integrated software solutions that will help academic institutions address critical issues of cost reduction, operating efficiency, program management, student retention and revenue generation. Every academic institution has to regularly develop and update course schedules that are intended to satisfy program requirements, student needs, teacher preferences and space constraints. Additional pressures arise as institutions try to keep costs low and/or increase revenues. This challenging optimization problem, called "timetabling" in the literature, has never had a near-optimal theoretical or practical solution for any but the smallest institutions, or limited versions of the problem. Moreover, there is no existing integrated, near-optimal software solution that can support studies of strategic issues such as new buildings, new programs, parking, environmental impacts, security, etc. This research will focus on extending methodologies, successfully developed for complex manufacturing applications, to enterprise timetabling in academic institutionsA significant dichotomy exists between the societal need to make higher education accessible, and data showing college costs rising much faster than inflation. Today, most institutions control costs crudely with across-the-board budget cuts, layoffs, larger classes and tapping into endowments. A commercialized product based on the proposed research would provide institutions with vastly improved planning and administrative capabilities, enabling them to better control costs, develop new strategies for critical issues, improve student experiences, increase revenues and more rapidly update programs.

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段研究项目旨在提供集成的软件解决方案，帮助学术机构解决降低成本，运营效率，项目管理，学生保留和创收等关键问题。 每个学术机构都必须定期制定和更新课程表，以满足课程要求，学生需求，教师偏好和空间限制。随着机构试图保持低成本和/或增加收入，额外的压力也随之而来。这个具有挑战性的优化问题，在文献中被称为“优化”，从来没有一个接近最优的理论或实际解决方案，但最小的机构，或有限的版本的问题。此外，目前还没有一个集成的、接近最优的软件解决方案可以支持对战略问题的研究，如新建筑、新项目、停车、环境影响、安全等。这项研究将侧重于将为复杂制造应用成功开发的方法扩展到学术机构的企业级应用。数据显示，大学费用的增长速度远远快于通货膨胀。 今天，大多数机构通过全面削减预算、裁员、扩大班级和利用捐赠基金来粗略地控制成本。 基于拟议研究的商业化产品将为机构提供大大改善的规划和管理能力，使他们能够更好地控制成本，为关键问题制定新战略，改善学生体验，增加收入并更快地更新计划。