Fuzzy Approach to Student-Project Allocation (SPA) Problem

This paper presents a novel algorithm for solving a Student-Project Allocation problem, a variation of a two-sided matching algorithm, where a large number of students are allocated to numerous projects with limited available allocation places. Several new or improved algorithms are proposed, inspired by recommender systems and combined into a genetic algorithm. The main two algorithms are (i) variating the master list of student average grade ranking inspired by a fuzzy approach and (ii) extending the incomplete project preference lists by exploring the similarities of student choices, thus minimizing the number of randomly allocated students. The algorithm was implemented for allocating more than 500 students to more than 200 projects, in a course at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing. We compared our algorithm with the Deferred Acceptance (DA) Algorithm to check its validity. Using the fuzzy approach, the number of unallocated students decreased by 10%, with almost no effect to the top-ranked students. The combined usage of all proposed algorithms increased the number of successfully allocated students by more than 25%.