Solution
GeniusLabs
developed the IM Scheduler for integration with the Intramurals.com website.
Features of the IM Scheduler included:
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The ability to schedule individual leagues one-at-a-time, or schedule all leagues within a sport concurrently.
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The ability to schedule all weeks within an entire season, or on a week-by-week basis.
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The ability to allow teams to specify times they "prefer" to play, and take these preferences into account when scheduling.
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A streamlined algorithm allowing leagues as large as 400 teams to be season scheduled in under five minutes.
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The flexibility to customize a schedule manually once automated scheduling completes.
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The ability to automatically create round-robin tournaments using the top specified teams in a league or sport.
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The flexibility to schedule around holidays, every-other-week scheduling, and reschedule teams affected by game cancellations and "rainouts".
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The ability to "allow" or "do not allow" scheduling of double-headers, triple-headers, two games per week, and a variety of other options.
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The ability for universities to do "block scheduling" rather than league scheduling.
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The ability to schedule games within specified periods of time and in specified facilities, and intelligently "bye" teams that cannot fit within times available.
Technology
The Smart Scheduling Component (IM Scheduler) was written in Visual Basic. Details of its integration with the Intramurals.com website can be found in Intramurals.com's case study.
Results
The IM Scheduler, the backbone of the Intramurals.com system, easily surpassed competing scheduling solutions in flexibility, speed, and accuracy. For schools like Michigan State, where the over 400 teams participate annually in Intramural basketball, the speed and convenience of the IM Scheduler saved
administrators weeks of scheduling headaches.
