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## 4 Conclusions And Further Research

The paper presented a study of a real world assignment problem, consisting of the assignment of student to scientific topics and therefore members of staff. The problem has to be solved on a recurring basis, and the implications of the assignments are of high practical and personal value to the parties involved.

A quantitative model to describe the situation at hand has been formulated and solved using a local search heuristic. Variable neighborhood search led to superior results, independent from the underlying problem characteristics. In addition to the maximization of the student's utility, a second criterion has been introduced balancing the workload of the **lecturers. Pareto optimal alternatives**
could have been identified, showing a tradeoff between imbalance and utility in outcome space.

The study conducted demonstrates the applicability of local search heuristics in general and variable neighborhood search in particular, but is so far only based on the experiences gathered at the University of Hohenheim. To generalize the conclusions, we are currently evaluating the status quo of the assignment process within seminars in universities throughout Germany with the final goal of proposing a more general methodology that supports the problem found in practice. The investigation is carried out involving a questionnaire and **personal communication with staff being** involved in organizing seminars.

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