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Auto assigner Process

Jeremy Booker edited this page Apr 28, 2015 · 4 revisions

How the Auto-assigner Works

The Auto-assigner works in two phases. The first phase makes a list of roommate pairs, and the second phase assigns those pairs.

Goals and Priorities

The goals of the auto-assigner are, in this order:

  • Assign students in order according to their application date. This avoids having students who apply early end up in overflow.
  • Honor requests for single-gender housing. (Everyone's child is pure as the driven snow...)
  • Honor confirmed roommate requests
  • Fill all empty, available rooms

Phase 1 - Roommate Pairs

  1. Create a list of all un-assigned freshmen.
  2. Make roommate pairs for all students
  • Pass 1: Make pairs for confirmed roommate requests (if both students are un-assigned)
  • Pass 2: Make pairs for students without roommate requests based on preferences
  1. Sort all roommate pairs by application date, using the earliest date in each pair

Phase 2 - Assign Pairs

  1. Single Gender: Go through the list of pairs (in dated order) and assign any pairs where either student requested single-gender housing. If no rooms in single-gender halls are available for a pair, then go to the next pair.
  2. Co-ed: Go through the list of pairs (in dated order) and assign any pairs where either student requested co-ed housing. If no co-ed halls remain, then skip that pair.
  3. Random: Go through the list (in dated order) and assign remaining pairs to any available room, even if it conflicts with the pair's preferences. This fills all remaining rooms.

Important Notes

  • For a pair to be assigned, there must be two empty beds in a two-person room.
  • The Auto-assigner does not handle suites (i.e. 3+ person rooms)
  • The Auto-assigner does not break confirmed roommate requests (assigning one student from a confirmed request without assigning the other)
  • The Auto-assigner does not assign individual students (it works in pairs of two, with two-person rooms)
  • It's best to consolidate/combine any two students who don't have roommates into a single room. This frees up one additional room for the auto-assigner, and means less manual assignment work later (and likely another roommate request that can be honored).
  • It's likely that the auto-assigner will run out of space before it assigns all students.

Rooms That Won't Be Used

  • Offline
  • Overflow
  • Reserved
  • RA Room
  • Private
  • Parlor
  • Rooms in offline halls
  • Rooms on offline floors