The ford fulkerson algorithm on a case study of the dissertation scheduling problem

Abstract

Scheduling problem are often hard and time consuming to solve. It is considered as one of the most difficult problem. Therefore, the development of a network model for timetabling problem is necessary to solve the problem by determining the maximum flow in the network. The purpose of this study is to develop a schedule of students versus examiner for proposal presentation exercise at Mathematical Sciences Department, Faculty of Science, UTM. In this research one of the network flow algorithm called Ford Fulkerson algorithm is applied in order to find the maximum flow of the network. Given a set of constraint consisting of a set of programs, a set of students, a set of lecturers, a set of days and periods and a set of classrooms, the problem is to assign programs to students, students to lecturer, lecturer to days and period, and lecturer to classroom subject to a set of hard and soft constraints. The computer software, MATLAB version 7.11.0 will be used to generate the Ford Fulkerson Algorithm. This is because it manages to successfully satisfy most of the constraints and optimizes the utilization of classrooms effectively and efficiently