D RD R AA TT

ABSTRACTABSTRACT Every semester each department at Iowa State University has to assign its faculty members and teaching assistants (TAs) to the courses offered, which is referred as the departmental resource assignment in this context. Currently, this is done manually in the ECpE department and there is a great need for the development of a tool that does this assignment automatically. The goal of this project is to develop a tool that will allow the ECpE administrator to generate the assignment in a faster and easier way. It will generate an efficient assignment satisfying the user preferences and maximizing the resource usage. To provide users the convenience and easy access to the tool, it will be web-based.

TECHNICAL PROBLEMTECHNICAL PROBLEMThe DRAT shall use the Maximum Weighted Matching algorithm to assign every faculty members and TAs to each course without any conflict while taking into account their course preferences. All data shall be stored in a database.

OPERATING ENVIRONMENTOPERATING ENVIRONMENTThe DRAT server shall run on UNIX-type operating system. Users shall be able to access the DRAT through any standard web-browser on any operating system with access to the Internet.

INTENDED USE(S) AND USER(S)INTENDED USE(S) AND USER(S)The DRAT shall be designed for the ECpE department at Iowa State University and the faculty members and TAs in this department. This tool could be exportable to other departments and universities as a final development stage.

ASSUMPTIONS & LIMITATIONSASSUMPTIONS & LIMITATIONS Intended users have access to the Internet and a standard web-browser.

Resources needed to develop the DRAT are readily available.

Running time of the DRAT is limited by the speed of the web server.

DESIGN OBJECTIVESDESIGN OBJECTIVESThe DRAT shall have menus for easy access by users and administrator. Most pages shall be generated by the DRAT to include the most current data. As shown in Figure 1, the users and administrator shall utilize the DRAT through any standard web-browser. The DRAT consists of two basic components: the server, and the database which stores the data and the output generated by the DRAT. The DRAT server interacts with the database to produce the result for the users’ or administrator’s actions.

FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTSFUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS Users of the DRAT are authenticated. Hold information for both the administrator and users. Administrator have full control of users and resources through the GUI. Users can update their requests.

DESIGN CONSTRAINTSDESIGN CONSTRAINTS No limit on the maximum number of users and courses. No budget provided to buy software or equipment. The GUI must provide all functionalities required to maintain the DRAT. The DRAT shall be accessible on any standard web-browser.

MILESTONESMILESTONES Completed project plan and design documents. DRAT successful implementation. Completed testing. Final release.

TECHNICAL APPROACHTECHNICAL APPROACHProgramming language:

PHP4 – a scripting language written to create dynamically generated HTML pages. PHP4 is freely available and compatible with standard web-

browsers.

Database:

MySQL – one of the most widely known database servers available. It is free and runs on most UNIX systems.

Server operating system:

UNIX – Most UNIX based operating systems are free and run on the x86 architecture making them easy to install and use.

TESTING APPROACHTESTING APPROACHThe DRAT shall be tested in two phases:

1. Internal testing – each function will be tested individually for correct operation.

2. Unit testing – the DRAT shall be tested as a whole for correct output.

The team members shall conduct both phase 1 and 2 tests. Phase 2 shall also be tested by the real users: the faculty members, TAs, and the administrator.

END-PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONEND-PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONThe DRAT is a server-side web-based tool that automates resource assignments. The final version of the DRAT shall function as described in Design Objectives. Figure 2 shows the GUI to login the DRAT, the DRAT main menu, and the resource request interface.

FINANCIAL AND PERSONNEL EFFORT BUDGETSFINANCIAL AND PERSONNEL EFFORT BUDGETSTotal Estimated Financial Budget: $60 (expense on poster printing).

Total Estimated Personnel Effort Budget: 430 hours.

TEAM INFORMATIONTEAM INFORMATION

Clients and Advisors: Team members:Prof. Arun Somani Don Curtis CprE Ami Kusano CprEProf. G. Manimaran Yana Ong CprE Ishak Surip EE

departmental resource assignment tool

May 02-13

Figure 1 : Data Flow DiagramFigure 1 : Data Flow Diagram

Web-browser

DRAT

DatabaseDRAT Server

Users

Administrator

Figure 2 : Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs)Figure 2 : Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs)