Floudas devises funding formula

A mathematical formula — originally developed by a University professor and a graduate student to facilitate the National Science Foundation's (NSF) administration of grant proposals — might change the way jobs are assigned in everything from hospitals to the government.

Christodoulos Floudas, a professor of chemical engineering, and chemical engineering graduate student Stacy Janak derived the mathematical model. Martin Taylor '05, an M.D./Ph.D. student at Johns Hopkins University, designed the computerized form, called the Panel Assignment Problem Solver.

Janak said that the most difficult part of creating the mathematical model was dealing with the many constraints, such as avoiding conflicts of interest in assigning proposals to reviewers of the same university. Working alongside Floudas and Taylor, Janak completed the mathematical model within a few weeks of receiving the assignment.

The computerized model uses the input of information — such as the number of reviewers and proposals — to distribute assignments in a spreadsheet form. It is a part of a genre called "general assignment problems" (GAP), whose solutions expand exponentially as the number of variables increases. Floudas has been working on GAPs throughout his twenty years at Princeton.

NSF program director Maria Burka '73 GS '78 and T.J. Mountziaris '83 GS '89, a fellow program director who is familiar with Floudas' research, asked Floudas to solve the constraint optimization formula last March.

"It's terrific," Burka said of Floudas' formula, adding that it was "more efficient and sometimes gives a better solution" than doing it out by hand, which can take hours.

The NSF, a federal agency with a yearly budget of approximately $5 billion, allocates research funding to schools, businesses and other research organizations throughout the country.

As a program director, Burka is in charge of merit review, the process of evaluating and selecting proposals to receive grants.

Floudas said he saw his assignment from the NSF as an exciting challenge, commenting, "It's one of those things that we have a little fun with."

Floudas said he did not consider additional applications of the formula when he took on the task. However, the current model, though designed for the NSF, can be altered for use by hospitals to distribute shifts to nurses and doctors, or government agencies to assign jobs to employees.

Thirty entries have already been registered to a website designed to record experimentation with the program. Any individual with a .edu email address can access the site.

"We have been flabbergasted with interest," Floudas said.