Conference Scheduler Skill (SolverForge)

Generate optimized conference schedules using SolverForge (Timefold compatible). Supports single-day and multi-day conferences.

Quick Start

# Install dependencies (requires Python 3.10-3.12)
pip install solverforge_legacy --break-system-packages

# Run scheduler
python assets/scheduler.py schedule.csv talks.csv output.csv --time-limit 30

Requirements

• Python 3.10, 3.11, or 3.12 (3.13+ not yet supported)
• JDK 17+ (for solver runtime)
• solverforge_legacy package

Input Formats

Single-Day Schedule CSV

"from hour";"to hour";"session type";"room name"
"10:35";"11:20";Conference;Room 2
"10:35";"11:20";Conference;Room 8
"11:30";"12:15";Conference;Room 3

Multi-Day Schedule CSV

Add a "day" column as the first column:

"day";"from hour";"to hour";"session type";"room name"
"Wednesday";"09:30";"10:15";Conference;Room 1
"Wednesday";"10:35";"11:20";Conference;Room 2
"Thursday";"09:30";"10:15";Conference;Room 1

Day values can be: day names (Monday, Tuesday), dates (2024-03-15), or labels (Day 1, Day 2).

Talks CSV

"Talk ID";"Talk Title";"Audience Level";"Talk Summary";"Track Name";"Speaker Availability days";"Available from";"Available to";"Speaker names"
1411;Unit Test Your Architecture;BEGINNER;ArchUnit is...;Development Practices;Wednesday,Thursday;;;Roland Weisleder
3872;Full-stack development;INTERMEDIATE;Java developers...;UI & UX;;;;Simon Martinelli

Speaker Availability formats (column 6):

• Day names: Wednesday,Thursday
• Day numbers: 1,2,3
• Empty = available all days

Constraints

Hard Constraints (Must satisfy)

Constraint	Description
Speaker conflict	Same speaker can't be in two rooms at same time
Room conflict	Two talks can't be in same room at same time
Track conflict	Same track can't have talks in different rooms simultaneously
Speaker availability	Speaker must be available on scheduled day

Soft Constraints (Optimization)

Constraint	Description
Educational flow (level)	Beginner → Intermediate → Advanced within track per day
Educational flow (order)	Respect AI-computed optimal talk sequence
Track room consistency	Keep same track in same room on same day

Output

CSV Output

Single-day:

"Talk ID";"From";"To";"Room";"Title";"Speakers";"Level";"Track"

Multi-day:

"Day";"Talk ID";"From";"To";"Room";"Title";"Speakers";"Level";"Track"

Markdown Output

Generated alongside CSV with .md extension, includes tables grouped by timeslot (and day for multi-day).

Time Limits

• Small conferences (< 30 talks): 10-30 seconds
• Medium conferences (30-100 talks): 30-120 seconds
• Large conferences (100+ talks): 2-10 minutes

Troubleshooting

Hard score < 0

The schedule has constraint violations. Check for:

• More talks than available slots
• Speaker assigned to multiple talks in same slot
• Speaker not available on scheduled day
• Too many talks in same track for available parallel slots

Increase time limit or review input data.

Talks not scheduled

Verify CSV parsing - check semicolon separators and quote handling.

Speaker availability not working

Ensure the "Speaker Availability days" column values match the day names in your schedule CSV (e.g., if schedule uses "Wednesday", availability should use "Wednesday" not "Wed").

JVM/Java errors

Ensure JDK 17+ is installed and JAVA_HOME is set correctly.

---

Powered by SolverForge