I’m very impressed with the genetic algorithm used to create the Master Session List for PDC 2008. It worked near perfect for me!
Approximately 55% of all attendees entered their session preferences in the MySessions section of the PDC site. Mike - he’s the content owner for PDC - used this data and a bunch of other factors to arrange all the sessions in an as optimal solution as possible. Optimal being the most satisfactory solution for all factors involved.
Attendee satisfaction was a factor in the calculations. Meaning if I as an attendee am able to attend all the sessions on my wish-list (sessions are close to each other in the rooms and not at colliding time slots) then this solution is better. Imagine aggregating this up to all attendees and all of their preferences! How cool is that!
Now for the mind blowing part; Under excruciating pain I tired and succeeded somewhat to cut down the huge set of GREAT sessions to a list of sessions I really really want to attend. Please note: I basically would have wanted to attend ALL sessions at PDC. Guess it’s going to be be a bunch of hours in front of the computer to view many of the ones I will not be able to attend while there!
What was the outcome? Almost all of the sessions on my list ended up on different slots! Amazing! I think on day 2 of the event there was a string of sessions and not a single collision and there were very few other collisions as well. That is just GREAT!
As far as I’m concerned the algorithm was a huge success! Great work Mike! ;~)
You can also read all about the algorithm in Mike Swanson’s blog!
Now I’m off for the airport! US and PDC here I come!
Cheers,
M.
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posted @ Saturday, October 25, 2008 12:50 PM