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A Utility-based Optimization Model for Allocating Student Teams to Community Projects

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Conference

2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Portland, Oregon

Publication Date

June 23, 2024

Start Date

June 23, 2024

End Date

June 26, 2024

Conference Session

Industrial Engineering Division (IND) Technical Session 1

Tagged Division

Industrial Engineering Division (IND)

Page Count

10

DOI

10.18260/1-2--46507

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/46507

Download Count

48

Paper Authors

biography

Khalid Bello University of Louisville

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Khalid Bello is an Industrial Engineering PhD student at University of Louisville.

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biography

Faisal Aqlan University of Louisville Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-0695-5364

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Dr. Faisal Aqlan is an Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering at The University of Louisville. He received his Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering form The State University of New York at Binghamton.

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biography

Danielle Wood University of Notre Dame

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Associate Professor of the Practice, Environmental Change Initiative

Dr. Wood received her M.S.and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and holds her B.S. from Purdue University. She is a transdisciplinary researcher, with research interests including community engagement, evaluation in complex settings, and translational work at the socio-technical nexus.

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Abstract

Participation in community-based projects provides students with invaluable benefits, including gaining practical experience and developing a sense of connection and belonging within the community. Nevertheless, the projects to which students are assigned can significantly influence their overall experience in this form of learning. Rather than relying on an approach that randomly assigns students to projects and often results in a mismatch between student preference and assigned project, we propose an optimization model to allocate community-based projects to students. The students provided a ranking of their project preference and 89 percent of all students received either their first or second choices. The optimization modeling approach not only streamlines the student-to-project allocation process for project coordinators but also ensures a consistent consideration of all relevant variables.

Bello, K., & Aqlan, F., & Wood, D. (2024, June), A Utility-based Optimization Model for Allocating Student Teams to Community Projects Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--46507

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