Takes the comp541 paper selection form results in csv format and writes out each user's first choice. You can use the intermediate dictionaries to solve the conflicts.

assign_paper_choices.py

import sys
import csv

input_csv_file = sys.argv[1]

user_prefs = {}
first_paper_prefs = {}
with open(input_csv_file, "r", encoding="utf-8") as csv_file:
    lines = list(csv.reader(csv_file, delimiter=','))
    paper_names = lines[0][2:]

    for line in lines[1:]:
        _, username, *choices = line
        curr_choices = sorted([choices[i] + "-" + str(i) for i in range(len(paper_names)) if choices[i] != ""])
        user_prefs[username] = curr_choices
        first_paper_prefs[int(curr_choices[0][2:])] = first_paper_prefs.get(int(curr_choices[0][2:]), list()) + [username]

# print(user_prefs)
# print(len(user_prefs))
# print(first_paper_prefs)
# print(len(first_paper_prefs))
# print(paper_names)

print("\n".join([key + "\t" + paper_names[int(val[0][2:])] for key, val in sorted(user_prefs.items())]))