Hierarchical Plans for an Aerospace Maintenance Crew Scheduler
Overview
What this challenge is about.
You receive a synthetic week of 80 work orders with hierarchical decompositions, technician certifications, and shared-tool constraints. Implement an HTN planner (PyHOP or HDDL with a recent planner) that respects certification + tooling constraints and produces a daily schedule with total makespan. Compare against the spreadsheet baseline on makespan, technician-utilization, and constraint-violation counts across the 5 days. Deliver a 3-page memo + a Notion-based runbook for the scheduling team.
The Brief
What you'll do, and what you'll demonstrate.
Prototype an HTN scheduler that beats the spreadsheet baseline on makespan and constraint violations across a realistic 5-day week.
Earning criteria — what you'll demonstrate
- Express a real domain as HTN methods + primitive tasks
- Handle resource and certification constraints during planning
- Compare against an entrenched baseline with realistic operational metrics
- Translate a research prototype into a runbook for non-engineers
Program Fit
Where this fits in your program.
Sharpens the same skills your degree expects you to demonstrate.
Skills
Skills you'll demonstrate.
Each one shows up on your verified credential.
Careers
Roles this prepares you for.
Real titles. Real skill bridges. Pick the one closest to your trajectory.
AI Engineer
HTN modeling on a real industrial scheduling problem is the kind of work AI engineers do at MRO, aerospace, and complex-ops startups.
This challenge sharpens
- htn-planning
- domain-modeling
- constraint-handling
Applied AI Scientist
Benchmarking a planner against an entrenched baseline and translating it into a runbook is daily applied AI scientist work.
This challenge sharpens
- scheduling
- benchmarking
- htn-planning
AI Solutions Architect
Designing a constraint-aware scheduling solution and the runbook that supports operator adoption mirrors solutions-architect work in enterprise AI.
This challenge sharpens
- domain-modeling
- constraint-handling
- scheduling