Scheduling university courses is extra challenging when classroom capacities are reduced because of social distancing requirements that are implemented in response to a pandemic such as COVID-19. In this work, we propose an expanded taxonomy of course delivery modes, present an integer program, and develop a course scheduling algorithm to enable all course sections -- even the largest -- to have a significant classroom learning component during a pandemic. Our approach is fair by ensuring that a certain fraction of the instruction in every course section occurs in the classroom. Unlike previous studies, we do not allow rotating attendance and instead require simultaneous attendance in which all students in a section meet in 1-5 rooms at the same time but less often than in a normal semester. These mass meetings, which create opportunities for in-person midterm exams and group activities, are scheduled at high precision across all days of the semester rather than a single, repeating week. A fast heuristic algorithm makes the schedule in an hour. Results: We consider the 1834 in-person course sections, 172 classrooms, and 96 days in the fall 2022 semester at [UniversityXYZ]. If average classroom capacity is reduced by 75% due to a pandemic, our approach still allows at least 25% of the instruction in every section, and more than 49% of all instruction across the entire campus, to be in the classroom. Our method also produces excellent results for regular classroom assignment. Managerial implications: An algorithm based on the principles of fairness and simultaneous attendance can significantly improve university course schedules during a pandemic and in normal times. High-precision schedules that prepare a campus for various pandemic possibilities can be created with minimal administrative effort and activated at a moment's notice before or during a semester if an outbreak occurs.

Remote working has been an idea that has been around for decades, but now the time has come to act on it. The benefits of remote working are clear, but what about its challenges? This paper explores this topic in depth and more! A common misconception among remote workers is that remote working is a replacement for in-person meetings. The truth is that it's not: the only thing you can do remotely that you can't do in person is video call.

The 13th Symposium on Combinatorial Search (SoCS) was held May 26-28, 2020. Originally scheduled to take place in Vienna, Austria, the symposium pivoted toward a fully online technical program in early March. As an in-person event SoCS offers participants a diverse array of scholarly activities including technical talks (long and short), poster sessions, plenary sessions, a community meeting and, new for 2020, a Master Class tutorial program. This paper describes challenges, approaches and opportunities associated with adapting these many different activities to the online setting. We consider issues such as scheduling, dissemination, attendee interaction and community engagement before, during and after the event. We report on the approaches taken by SoCS in each case, we give a post-hoc analysis of their their effectiveness and we discuss how these decisions continue to impact the SoCS community in the days after SoCS 2020.

Businesses can only operate as effectively as they can communicate. The ability to share information, develop relationships, and negotiate will define enterprise success. Accordingly, Silicon Valley has become obsessed with ways to make the mechanisms of communication more efficient and compelling. The interesting effect of this compulsion is that it's forced innovation in two equal and opposite directions: technology that makes communication less human and technology that fosters even greater humanity. From chatbots to VR (virtual reality), different tools will serve different needs.