Computer science students help solve scheduling challenge for CU's Conference
Source: Sarah Kuta
The traditional Conference of World Affairs opening procession is seen crossing the University of Colorado campus last year. This year's event opens Monday. (Paul Aiken)
One hundred participants. Two hundred panels. Five days. Eighteen venues.
Scheduling the University of Colorado's Conference on World Affairs can be a nightmare.
Throughout the conference's 67-year history, dedicated volunteers have figured out the complex scheduling logistics by hand, a painstaking process requiring hours of work.
This year, the conference put this challenge to a group of undergraduates studying computer science on the Boulder campus.
As part of their senior capstone course, six students worked throughout the fall semester and a few months into the spring semester to develop and deploy a CWA scheduling algorithm.
Humans are still inviting participants, curating their varying interests and designing panels, which involves picking two to four participants to talk with each other and answer questions from the audience on a selected topic.
But this year, the conference — which begins Monday — got some high-tech logistical help.
The scheduling algorithm isn't the only tech upgrade at the conference this year: the CWA is debuting a new mobile app that provides attendees with the schedule, maps, speaker bios and a chance to provide instant feedback.
"The program committee comes up with the panels, but we have panelists arriving at different times and leaving at different times, we have only a certain number of venues available, we don't want panelists to have panels back-to-back, but a panelist must be on at least one panel every day they're here — so a lot of constraints," said Marc Rochkind, co-chair of the science and technology subcommittee and a member of the CWA board. "This was all done manually over the span of a week and that's the way it was always done and it was terrible."
A group of seniors was intrigued by the CWA's problem, which was presented at the beginning of the fall semester during an expo featuring other "clients" who had a problem they wanted students to solve.
The students, now a few months away from graduating, saw an opportunity to work on a real-world issue faced by many organizations.
"It didn't sound like an easy project at all," said senior Yousef Alsabr. "Scheduling is something huge in the industry. Everyone wants a program for scheduling, for shifts at restaurants, they all want something like that."
Alsabr said his team liked the fact that this new scheduling tool would be used by the CWA for years to come — it was their way to leave a mark on campus.
The group reported to Rochkind, himself an experienced computer scientist, and by late February, the algorithm was ready.
There were roughly 10 scheduling situations that didn't work out with the algorithm, but overall, Rochkind said he was impressed with the students' work and professionalism throughout the process.
"I told them at the beginning, 'If you guys do 95 percent, that's like total success,'" Rochkind said.
The cross-campus collaboration is one of many new partnerships formed by the CWA this year. The conference is also working with the student-run Cultural Events Board to bring Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to CU for the conference keynote address.
This year, the CWA also saw a spike in the number of professors who requested a specific panel topic and said they plan to bring a class of students to that panel.
Rochkind said typically there are five or six of those requests. This year, there were more than 20.
"This is one example of how we are now trying to connect more with the university, which is ironic because the CWA's always been part of the university," he said.
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