This software is being designed primarily for the Computer Science Department at Cal Poly. Eventually it can evolve to work campus wide with all departments and even further to work with other campuses. This software will allow professors to input their preferences for courses they want to teach, periods of time during the day they want to teach, and which days of the week they want to teach (patterns of days). The administrator will be able to add constraints so that no classes overlap, some aspects of the generated schedule are not editable, distance between conjoining classes has a maximum distance, and not allowing certain patterns of days that courses are allowed to be scheduled in. This software will run on personal computers for instructors and the administrator with different views for each. The admin will have access to the instructors' preferences and will be allowed to edit the instructors' preferences. All data will be on a central server that can be viewed by students and faculty. At the highest level, there is a university-level machine that contains the schedule.
Initial setup will be required to fill the database with classroom information and instructor preferences. Once those options are filled in, on a quarter to quarter basis there will be no major setup necessary. Professors will be able to change their preferences up until a certain date for a certain quarter.