I've been sent here from StackOverflow with my mathematical / algorithm question.
I am currently working with an organisation developing a web system, one area attempting to resolve in-house training clashes.
An example (as best as I can describe is):
What the company is attempting to do is prevent major clashes (>10 people affected) when planning training course times.
- 100 people are attending training course A.
- 75 people are attending training course B.
- 25 people are attending training course C.
- 5 people are attending training course D.
If 75 people attending B are all attending course A, and B were to run at the same time, there would be a total of 75 clashes.
If all 25 people from course C are attending course A and B, running any of these courses at the same time would result in at minimum of 25 clashes.
If 3 people were attending A and D, and they were to run at the same time only 3 would have an issue and therefore not be a major problem.
The system they are attempting to develop does not necessarily need to resolve the clash itself, just highlight if a certain number of clashes are likely to occur when arranging a new time.
I hope that explains the situation - I am a programmer by profession so this sort of thing is new to me, any points in the right direction would be fantastic!