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Test-assignment: a quadratic coloring problem

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Abstract

We consider the problem of assigning the test variants of a written exam to the desks of a classroom in such a way that desks that are close-by receive different variants. The problem is a generalization of the Vertex Coloring and we model it as a binary quadratic problem. Exact solution methods based on reformulating the problem in a convex way and applying a general-purpose solver are discussed as well as a Tabu Search algorithm. The methods are extensively evaluated through computational experiments on real-world instances.

The problem arises from a real need at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Bologna where the solution method is now implemented.

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Correspondence to Andrea Lodi.

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Duives, J., Lodi, A. & Malaguti, E. Test-assignment: a quadratic coloring problem. J Heuristics 19, 549–564 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10732-011-9176-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10732-011-9176-0

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