Aja 1 1-Jun-16 Attorney and Justice Assignment AJA Your Name Here! Florida Institute of Technology and United States Government Litigation Unit Department of Homeland Security

Aja 2 1-Jun-16 Problem Description Meet Bob, an attorney with the federal government: Bob is a very successful attorney. So successful in fact, that they…put him in charge… In charge of what, you ask?

Aja 3 1-Jun-16 Problem Description Other attorneys, of course! According to Bob, managing attorneys is…

Aja 4 1-Jun-16 Problem Description A bit like herding cats… But we won’t repeat that outside of this room…

Aja 5 1-Jun-16 Problem Description And, by the way, Bob has bosses too, and they are always watching him… But that really doesn’t matter to us right now…

Aja 6 1-Jun-16 Problem Description So what does Bob do with his cats attorneys? He sends them to court to try cases on behalf of the federal government. You see, Bob doesn’t try cases anymore, because he is in “management”…LOL And, by the way, the federal government has LOTS of cases to try. –What kinds of cases? Just about anything you can imagine… So what, exactly, is the problem?

Aja 7 1-Jun-16 Problem Description The basic problem is one of scheduling: –There are n judges (approximately 20) –There are m attorneys (approximately 52) –Judges have predetermined schedules: Available on some days, unavailable on others Some have specialties, which allow them to hear certain types of cases (Think of the judges’ schedules as a “fixed” input) –Attorneys have scheduling constraints, but not fixed schedules (unlike judges): Some are part time, some are full time Some have specialties and can try certain types of cases Most have other duties that prevent them from being in court on certain days –Other constraints: Some judges are “preferred” by some attorneys Some cases are considered more difficult than others The assignment of attorneys to cases should be “fair” –There are many more constraints, but not too many; just enough to make it interesting computationally. The attorneys’ schedules are what Bob has to determine –Think of it as filling up a calendar, subject to a bunch of constraints.

Aja 8 1-Jun-16 Problem Description Currently Bob puts a schedule together by hand, using a big Excel spreadsheet. Bob doesn’t think scheduling is all that interesting, or difficult, but it is a bit of big puzzle, and it does take time. Too much of his (valuable) time, to be precise. Bob believes that anyone could do the scheduling, including an idiot. Did Bob really say that?!? Better yet…how about software?

Aja 9 1-Jun-16 Solution Description The goal is to develop a prototype system that is able to: –Input and modify judge schedules. –Input attorney scheduling constraints. –Automatically create attorney schedules over a specified time period, subject to all constraints. –Allow certain parts of attorney schedules to be “locked,” while others are then automatically regenerated (iterative improvement). –Calculate and report statistics (e.g., “fairness”) on schedules and assignments over time. –Plus other stuff… Such a system would give our friend Bob time for more important activities…

Aja 10 1-Jun-16 End Result