One of the main elements for creating an optimal operating room schedule is an accurate surgery duration estimation. Currently, this estimation is only done preoperatively. However, multiple factors during the surgery itself could influence the duration, for example bleeding. Literature showed the possibility of intraoperatively estimating a surgery duration based on surgical progress. However, one of the main concerns was the usability of such a system in the operating room workflow. Therefore, this research was focused on two parts: (1) the creation of an automatic intraoperative remaining surgery duration estimation system and (2) the evaluation of such a system for the operating room workflow. Two types of surgeries were used for the estimation, the Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy and the Total Laparoscopic Hysterectomy. The estimation was created using multiple statistical regressor methods, such as linear regression and random forest, and progress-based methods based on the nearest-neighbors algorithm and Dynamic Time Warping method. The evaluation was done on two levels: the system level based on the error of the estimation, and the operating room workflow based on surgical data from 2016 to 2019 and interviews with the operating room program coordinators. Results showed that an intraoperative remaining surgery duration estimation system based on surgical phases was able to re-estimate the duration with an error of about 10 minutes, an acceptable error for the operating room workflow. Moreover, the third quarter of the surgery showed to be the essential part where an accurate estimation is needed. Furthermore, an automatic system showed additional benefits such as being unbiased, continuous, and reducing unnecessary disturbance in the operating rooms. Overall, this research showed that an intraoperative remaining surgery duration system based on surgical phases is promising for the operating room workflow. Future research is needed to understand how to implement such a system in the operating room workflow.

Cairo-based IT company Key2Soft is working on a comprehensive system to automate various systems in Egyptian primary-,middle- and high schools. This software system, named Key2School, includes a timetabling component, with which the company aims to relieve the workload of timetablers by providing them with a system which automatically generates timetables for all teachers, students and subjects. In consultation with the company, both functional requirements and timetable requirements have been composed for the timetabling part. A literature study has been conducted to find and compare existing timetabling algorithms and libraries in order to select the best match for the company. All existing algorithms in literature were found to be too slow, so a system has been designed around an open source timetabling program. This system contains a part where the program is managed, a part which interfaces with the database of Key2Soft and a part where the timetable resources are constructed in a compatible manner. The system has been implemented according to and in consultation with programmers at Key2Soft and will be integrated in Key2School in the future. The system is programmed mainly in C# and uses XML files to configure the timetabling library. The system has been thoroughly tested with NUnit, a platform-specific unit testing library, which enabled the developers to verify the code quality. The code has furthermore been evaluated by the independent IT consultant SIG.