Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of allocating office space to personnel in an academic institution. The objectives of accommodating everyone, meeting Council of Ontario Universities (COU) guidelines, and proximity of personnel in the same research area are identified. A binary integer goal programming model is created to optimize allocation. To further improve the quality of the allocation, goals are weighted independently, and deviations are disallowed for some goals. The model is illustrated on a case study consisting of 6 research groups, 3 personnel categories, and 108 office spaces. Depending on the personnel category, square footage is assigned which roughly translates to a room capacity of 1 for professors, 2 for post-doctoral fellows and 4 for graduate students. The accommodation goal is met completely (i.e., all individuals are allotted space), there is minimal deviation with the group floor assignment goal (i.e., some individuals are not on the same floor as the rest of the research group) and moderate deviation in meeting the COU space goal (i.e., the room capacity constraints are not completely met).