This case uses a mathematician’s experience as a first-time organizer for a prestigious conference in Barcelona, Spain, to set the stage for applying optimization methods to scheduling problems. In particular, the case addresses linear optimization with binary variables to map out a speaker schedule. The protagonist, Juana Torres, is given a list of submitted talks, a matrix of restrictions about which talk fits which topics, as well as a number of constraints on individual presenters’ schedules. Her goal is to find a speaker schedule which maximizes the attractiveness to the audience without violating any of the constraints. The material includes a spreadsheet template with a basic schedule layout for students to work through.
