FET chooses teachers?

[MrPeterHall]

I've got a block of 12 lessons, for 10 classes.  Each class needs 7 hours of maths and 5 hours of science.  I really don't mind which maths teacher or which science teacher.  Can FET help me find a plausible set of teachers?

[Liviu Lalescu]

Hello,

I am not sure I understand exactly the problems of your timetable, but to allocate activities (subject+students set) to a teacher you could use FET in the Block planning mode.

[MrPeterHall]

Thank you - how do I find the block planning mode?  Can't see it in the manual.

[Liviu Lalescu]

You are welcome!

You can start a new file and FET will ask you to choose a mode out of the 4 available, one of them being Block planning (if you already have a file in another mode, you can go to File -> Mode and change the mode, retaining your data). It is not described in Volker's manual, I think, but you have some examples in the corresponding FET directory and a specialized Help in FET, showing a link also to the forum specialized topic.

[MrPeterHall]

Finally back in front of a computer and trying to see how I can use FET to help me.

I've got 5 classes and 12 lessons - within the 12 lessons each class needs 5 hours of science and 7 hours of maths.

I've got 5 maths teachers - but not all available at the same time.
I've got 5 science teachers - but not all available at the same time.

Here are the 5 maths teachers
Ma1 YYYYNNYYYNNN
Ma2 YYNYYNNNNYNY
Ma3 YYYYYYYYYYYY
Ma4 YYNYYNYYNYNY
Ma5 NNYYYYNNYYYY

The Y means that is a lesson the teacher is available, and the N means they aren't

And 5 science teachers
Sc1 YNYNNNYYYNYY
Sc2 YNYNYNNNYNYY
Sc3 YYYNNNYNYNNY
Sc4 YNYYYYNYYYNY
Sc5 YNNYYYYYNYYN

My current timetable software insists I choose which maths teacher and which science teacher for each class - so when I've formed 5 pairs - it will have a go - and then tell me it can't be done.  So I have to manually re-choose the pairs -and try again.  This is too hard!

So I can do it my hand on a piece of paper - but really hoping FET can have a go at this for me?

Struggling to see how to get this information into the block-planning mode.

Help!

Thanks

Peter

[Liviu Lalescu]

Please see the attached file. FET manages to place 59 out of 60 activities. It seems you need to free at least an N slot of a (Science?) teacher, I am not sure. You can check the highest-stage timetable for a partial 59 out of 60 activities timetable. Check the All activities days horizontal timetable.

[MrPeterHall]

thank you - this is excellent...  Now I'll just try to learn how you did this - and see what I can edit / change.  With a very quick look - it doesn't ensure a class has the same teacher all the time - which isn't a total disaster - but I'll try to see whether I can tweak settings and make it try harder.  The fact that it finds a solution so quickly is good news.

[Liviu Lalescu]

You are welcome! I actually tried the same teacher (10 constraints same starting day, see attached), but it is even more difficult. But it might be possible if you convert more N-s to Y-s. I hope the attached file is correct in the other aspects with liviu.fet, because I tried more before that and I am not sure I forgot something.

[MrPeterHall]

Hmm - this is very interesting and helpful.

Is it possible to constrain so that it can choose at most two teachers (ie NOT three - but that choosing one would be ok - I mean ideally one teacher, but two isn't impossible)

Many thanks

Peter

[Liviu Lalescu]

I will try to think of this. I hope I will think of constraints or tricks to use with the official FET; if not, you might need for this a custom version.

But please give me a liviu.fet modified to be solvable.

[Liviu Lalescu]

Maybe like the attached file (neglect the warning, FET-6.22.4 is only on my hard disk, for now).

I converted (Sc 2, 6) from N to Y.

This file is a bit more difficult to solve. You might want to generate multiple on more threads.

I think the constraints I added tend to make a student choose 1 teacher mainly, but an exceptional teacher 2 is allowed for one or two activities (I mean, FET will prefer to use more activities for a single teacher, not half/half between two teachers).