Mid-semester Pandemic-driven Course Rescheduling with Integer Programming

ABSTRACT

As universities begin the return to in-person course work, uncertainty remains about the future of SARS-CoV-2 virus and its variants. In the years to come, other novel pathogens may emerge. Pandemic-driven social distancing requirements reduce the number of students in classrooms, and when these requirements are instituted mid-semester, universities must make quick changes to classroom assignments and course delivery mode. In this work, we introduce two integer programs to optimize mid-semester changes (i) a conflict-matrix-based model that determines new classroom capacities and designs the corresponding seat map, and (ii) a hierarchical model that optimizes room assignment and course delivery mode according to prioritized objectives. We test our methods with University of Michigan's engineering course schedule for Fall 2021, under a hypothetical 3-foot social distancing requirement. We compare the performance of the models under different hierarchical objectives and room assignment assumptions and discuss the managerial implications of our results. © 2022 IISE Annual Conference and Expo 2022. All rights reserved.