A dynamic project allocation algorithm for a distributed expert system

One of the major concerns of a distributed expert system is to provide optimal solution to a business process characterized by an operations research model. Based on the concept of dynamic programming, the paper presents an efficient computer algorithm which solves an Integer Programming Model for optimally allocating Final Year Projects to more than 200 fourth year BSc students in Department of Civil Engineering (CE), National University of Singapore (NUS), subject to the operation constraints of students’ ranking, personal preference and project availability. Having been implemented as part of a distributed project allocation system, the algorithm has improved tremendously the operation efficiency of FYP allocation, by a factor of more than 600 times with a flawless accuracy as compared to its counterpart generated by a previously-adopted manual processing procedure. In light of the dynamic programming pattern abstracted from this system, the allocation algorithm has the potential of being extended to building other distributed merit-based expert systems. q 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.