I am trying to implement Drools Planner for allocating timetables. At the moment, my proficiency in Java and JavaBean design pattern is low and I need something simple to practice on.
Is there an AI optimization problem that
- known to be solved very well with 'X' algorithm
- the data model lends itself to be expressed in JavaBean design pattern in a simple manner
- uses fewest number of extra features (like planning entity difficulty)
Such a problem would be good to cut my teeth on Drools Planner.
I am trying N-Queens problem right now which seems the simplest of these. So I am looking for something of this league.
Update: See CloudBalancingHelloWorld.java
in optaplanner-examples (Drools Planner is renamed to OptaPlanner).
You could also try implementing the ITC2007 curriculum course scheduling yourself and then compare it with the source code of the example in Drools Planner. If you want to keep it simple but get decent results too, follow this recipe and go for First Fit followed by Tabu Search.
Another good idea, is to join the ITC2011 scheduling competition: it's still open till 1-MAY-2012 and very similar to the curriculum course scheduling example.