Course Schedule Optimizer — User Guide

Overview

The Course Schedule Optimizer generates conflict-free class schedules for the ME/BE department. You provide three input files, and the tool automatically computes the best arrangement of courses into available time slots.

Priority: The optimizer avoids student conflicts first (two courses in the same semester overlapping), then minimizes faculty inconveniences.

Quick Start

Go to /scheduler/ on the website
Click “Load Sample Data” to try it with example data
Click “Generate Schedule” to run the optimizer
Review the weekly grid, conflict report, and faculty loads

Input Files

You need three CSV files:

1. Courses to Schedule

Your department’s courses for the semester, with instructor assignments.

Column	Description	Example
`course_code`	Course code as it appears in the catalog	`ME 352`
`instructor`	Last name of assigned instructor	`Smith`
`sections`	Number of sections to schedule	`1` or `2`
`is_lab`	Whether this is a lab section	`true` or `false`
`linked_to`	Course code of the linked lecture (labs only)	`ME 352`

Example:

course_code,instructor,sections,is_lab,linked_to
ME 352,Smith,1,false,
ME 352L,Smith,1,true,ME 352
ME 311,Johnson,1,false,

Notes:

Lab courses must have is_lab set to true and linked_to pointing to their lecture
If a course has 2 sections, the tool creates two independent entries (§01, §02) that each need a slot
The tool looks up the course code in courses.yml to determine which program/semester it belongs to

2. External Schedules

Frozen schedules from other departments (MATH, PHYS, CHEM, etc.). You can upload multiple files — one per department.

Column	Description	Example
`course_code`	External course code	`MATH 132`
`day_pattern`	Meeting days	`MWF` or `TR`
`start_time`	Start time (24h)	`10:00`
`end_time`	End time (24h)	`10:50`
`section`	Section number	`01`

Day pattern codes: M=Monday, T=Tuesday, W=Wednesday, R=Thursday, F=Friday

Example:

course_code,day_pattern,start_time,end_time,section
MATH 132,MWF,10:00,10:50,01
MATH 132,MWF,11:00,11:50,02
PHYS 141,MWF,09:00,09:50,01

These are treated as hard constraints — the optimizer will never place a department course at a time that conflicts with an external course in the same semester.

3. Time Slots

Available class and lab periods. Update this file each year if the university changes its schedule grid.

Column	Description	Example
`slot_type`	`class` or `lab`	`class`
`day_pattern`	Meeting days	`MWF`
`start_time`	Start time (24h)	`08:00`
`end_time`	End time (24h)	`08:50`

Example:

slot_type,day_pattern,start_time,end_time
class,MWF,08:00,08:50
class,TR,08:00,09:15
lab,TR,14:00,16:50

Standard patterns:

MWF classes: 50 minutes with 10-minute passing periods
TR classes: 75 minutes
Labs: 2 hours 50 minutes

Using the Results

Weekly Grid

The main output is a weekly calendar showing all scheduled courses:

Color-coded by instructor (each instructor gets a unique color)
Tags on each block show year level (Fr/So/Jr/Sr) and program (ME/BE/GE)
Red border = conflict detected
Dashed border, dimmed = external course (frozen)
Teal border + lock icon = locked by you

Filter Dropdowns

Instructor: Show only one instructor’s courses
Year Level: Show only Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, or Senior courses
Program: Show only ME, BE Biomech, BE Bioelec, or BE Biomed courses

Conflict Report

Shows:

Total number of conflicts
Student conflicts (same-semester courses overlapping)
Instructor conflicts (same instructor, overlapping times)
Unscheduled courses (couldn’t find a valid slot)

Faculty Load Summary

Table showing each instructor’s:

Credit hours
Contact hours per week
Number of distinct preps
List of assigned courses

High loads are highlighted in red, low loads in blue.

Lock & Re-Run

Click any course block on the grid to lock/unlock it
Locked courses (shown with teal border and lock icon) stay in their slot
Click “Re-optimize” to run the solver again with locked courses as fixed constraints
Useful for iterative refinement: lock the assignments you like, let the optimizer improve the rest

Export

Export CSV: Downloads a CSV with all scheduled department courses
Export Excel: Downloads an Excel workbook with two sheets:
- Sheet 1: Schedule (course, section, instructor, day pattern, times)
- Sheet 2: Faculty Loads (credit hours, contact hours, preps)

Troubleshooting

“Could not load sample data”: Make sure the dev server is running (bundle exec jekyll serve).

Courses show as unscheduled: The optimizer couldn’t find any valid slot due to hard constraints. Try:

Adding more time slots
Checking if external schedules are blocking all options
Reducing the number of sections

Unexpected conflicts: Verify that courses.yml correctly lists which semester each course belongs to for each program. The optimizer uses this to determine which courses students take concurrently.