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Balancing diversity and preferences : Mono-objective versus Multi-objective Approaches to the Educational Team Formation Problem
Frutos Rodriguez, Daniel and Barrios Fleitas, Y.D.C. and Lalla, E.A. (2025) Balancing diversity and preferences : Mono-objective versus Multi-objective Approaches to the Educational Team Formation Problem.
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| Abstract: | This study explores the Team Formation Problem (TFP) in an educational case study that aims to create project teams balancing cognitive diversity and student preferences—a computationally complex task due to its NP-hard nature. The research investigates three nature-inspired metaheuristics: an enhanced mono-objective Genetic Algorithm (GA), a multi-objective Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II), and a discrete Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) approach adapted to the TFP. All algorithms are modified to strictly enforce domain-specific constraints and are evaluated on real and reduced datasets representing up to 278 students. Results show that PSO consistently outperforms both genetic algorithms in terms of solution quality, although at a higher computational cost. Meanwhile, NSGA-II retains its advantage of offering a diverse set of trade-offs via Pareto-optimal fronts, making it especially suitable for scenarios requiring flexible or value-driven decision-making. The study contributes open-source tools and empirical benchmarks to support reproducible research in team optimization and algorithmic approaches to educational design. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Bachelor) |
| Faculty: | EEMCS: Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science |
| Subject: | 54 computer science, 81 education, teaching |
| Programme: | Business & IT BSc (56066) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/107376 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
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