  After the COVID pandemic, student leadership development within the brigade
of midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy (USNA) was severely degraded
due to reduced student interaction from isolation and remote learning. Brigade
leadership decided that reassignment of some students from their previous
companies to new companies could facilitate new leadership bonds for the next
academic year. All students in the classes of 2023 and 2024 are reassigned from
their previous companies to new companies with the Brigade Reassignment Problem
(BRP). The first goal of BRP is to minimize the number of students reassigned
to their current company. The second goal seeks to improve the homogeneity of
each company in terms of average metrics defined by brigade leadership. We
create three similar mathematical programming models to achieve different goals
of the BRP. The first model focuses on the first goal and quickly obtains an
optimal solution. A second model focuses on the second goal and obtains
high-quality feasible solutions. A third model combines the two goals and
obtains an optimal solution within seven hours. USNA leadership implemented
results from the first model to reassign the classes of 2023 and 2024 to new
companies for the next academic year.
