美国数学建模竞赛特等奖论文——1997 B O A Greedy Algorithm for Solving Meeting Mixing Problems【数学建模】.pdfVIP

A Greedy Algorithm 331 A Greedy Algorithm for Solving Meeting Mixing Problems Adrian Corduneanu Cyrus C. Hsia Ryan O’Donnell University of Toronto Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G3 Canada Advisor: Nicholas A. Derzko Introduction We consider the problem of how to best arrange a large number of people into small discussion groups so that the groups are well mixed. It is important to have well-mixed groups because any meeting runs the risk of being controlled or directed by a dominant personality. Thus, we wish to ensure schedules give different mixes of people for each group. This problem relates directly to the case of An Tostal Corporation. The company wants to place its board members in small groups within each session so that the board members are well mixed throughout the day. The company’s schedule must also satisfy other constraints: At the morning session, there is a senior officer assigned to each group, and no board member is to be placed with any senior officer more than once. A percentage of the board members are in-house members, and the company wishes that no group should have a disproportionate number of in-house members. To solve the problem, we first develop a scoring system for schedules. There must be a schedule or schedules that achieve the best possible score; but the total number of schedules is astronomical, so we cannot check all of them. Consequently, the problem reduces to finding as good a schedule as possible in c The UMAP Journal 18 (3) (1997) 331–342. Copyright 1997 by COMAP, Inc. All rights reserved. Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies be