Student-project allocation with preferences over projects

Manlove, D.F. and O'Malley, G. (2008) Student-project allocation with preferences over projects. Journal of Discrete Algorithms, 6(4), pp. 553-560. (doi: 10.1016/j.jda.2008.07.003)

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Publisher's URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jda.2008.07.003

Abstract

We study the problem of allocating students to projects, where both students and lecturers have preferences over projects, and both projects and lecturers have capacities. In this context we seek a stable matching of students to projects, which respects these preference and capacity constraints. Here, the stability definition generalises the corresponding notion in the context of the classical Hospitals/Residents problem. We show that stable matchings can have different sizes, which motivates max-spa-p, the problem of finding maximum cardinality stable matching. We prove that max-spa-p is NP-hard and not approximable within δ, for some δ>1, unless P=NP. On the other hand, we give an approximation algorithm with a performance guarantee of 2 for max-spa-p.

Item Type:Articles
Keywords:Matching problem, stable matching, NP-hardness, approximation hardness, approximation algorithm
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Manlove, Professor David and O'Malley, Mr Gregg
Authors: Manlove, D.F., and O'Malley, G.
Subjects:Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
Journal Name:Journal of Discrete Algorithms
Publisher:Elsevier
ISSN:1570-8667
ISSN (Online):1570-8675
Published Online:06 August 2008
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2008 Elsevier
First Published:First published in Journal of Discrete Algorithms 6(4):553-560
Publisher Policy:Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher.

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Project CodeAward NoProject NamePrincipal InvestigatorFunder's NameFunder RefLead Dept
436361MATCH-UP - matching under preferences - algorithms and complexityRobert IrvingEngineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)EP/E011993/1COM - COMPUTING SCIENCE