2026-06-30T06:04:33Zhttps://riubu.ubu.es/oai/request

oai:riubu.ubu.es:10259/118462026-06-17T00:05:32Zcom_10259_3830com_10259_5086com_10259_2604col_10259_3832

Galán Ordax, José Manuel 188 600 0000-0003-3360-7602 Díaz de la Fuente, Silvia 730 600 0000-0002-5961-3368 Ahedo García, Virginia 10 600 0000-0002-9812-388X Santos Martín, José Ignacio 526 600 0000-0002-6653-043X 2026-06-16T07:46:11Z 2026-06-16T07:46:11Z 2026-03 https://hdl.handle.net/10259/11846 10.7717/peerj-cs.3710 2376-5992 In the context of infectious diseases, the assignment of students to classroom groups can significantly influence infection dynamics within school environments, particularly when sibling relationships introduce latent connections between otherwise unconnected groups. Traditional grouping methods and pandemic-era bubble strategies do not explicitly optimize student network structures or account for equity in exposure. This study introduces the Sibling Rewiring Problem, a novel multi-objective framework for student assignment that aims to maximize network fragmentation, reduce potential contagion pathways and minimize variance in group sizes and epidemiological exposure—thereby promoting fairness. We compared baseline, heuristic, and metaheuristic strategies in realistic school scenarios. A simple heuristic that assigns siblings to the same classroom line when feasible consistently achieves substantial network fragmentation with minimal impact on equity. Simulated Annealing further improved these results, particularly in complex configurations with densely connected sibling networks. Our findings suggest that family-aware classroom assignments can enhance epidemiological resilience while maintaining socially acceptable distributions. This approach provides a practical and scalable framework for integrating public health considerations into educational planning and may inform future decision-making in both emergency and routine contexts This research was supported by the Ministry of Science and Innovation through its excellence network RED2022-134890-T, the project PID2020118906GB-I00, and the MOMENTUM program project MMT24-IMF-02. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript application/pdf eng PeerJ Inc. PeerJ Computer Science. 2026, V. 12, art. e3710 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj-cs.3710 Atribución 4.0 Internacional http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Classroom assignment Sibling networks Epidemic risk Assignment optimization Network fragmentation Multi-objective optimization Equitable risk distribution Niños-Enfermedades Algoritmos Children-Diseases Algorithms Optimizing classroom assignments to minimize epidemiological risk: the sibling rewiring problem info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion PeerJ Computer Science 12 e3710 THUMBNAIL Galan-PJCS_2026.pdf.jpg Galan-PJCS_2026.pdf.jpg IM Thumbnail image/jpeg 4092 https://riubu.ubu.es/bitstream/10259/11846/4/Galan-PJCS_2026.pdf.jpg 1cce62ba7d55e10db75e0ce0fd209ccd MD5 4 LICENSE license.txt license.txt text/plain; charset=utf-8 999 https://riubu.ubu.es/bitstream/10259/11846/3/license.txt b295bcbce42e2caabeb0c623d3860c06 MD5 3 CC-LICENSE license_rdf license_rdf application/rdf+xml; charset=utf-8 908 https://riubu.ubu.es/bitstream/10259/11846/2/license_rdf 0175ea4a2d4caec4bbcc37e300941108 MD5 2 ORIGINAL Galan-PJCS_2026.pdf Galan-PJCS_2026.pdf application/pdf 2582511 https://riubu.ubu.es/bitstream/10259/11846/1/Galan-PJCS_2026.pdf b78f5ae5876978f53f34e4dc5d78700e MD5 1 10259/11846 oai:riubu.ubu.es:10259/11846 2026-06-17 02:05:32.651 Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Burgos bubrep@ubu.es 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