An Application of Cluster Analysis Technique in Educational Planning

In this paper an application of the cluster analysis technique in educational planning is demonstrated by means of a developed computer software with some characteristics of an expert system. The main idea is based on the knowledge-based systems which have been applied in group technology. The software is applied to weekly schedules of the courses and professors of the Industrial Engineering Department of Sharif University of Technology. The results show that the technique can be applied to reduce the number of variables and constraints of a zero-one programming model of an educational planning (a typical example of an assignment problem).