Hybridization of Genetic Algorithms and Constraint Propagation for the BACP

Constraint Satisfaction Problems (CSP) provide a modelling framework for many computer aided decision making problems. Many of these problems are associated to an optimization criterion. Solving a CSP consists in finding an assignment of values to the variables that satisfies the constraints and optimizes a given objective function (in case of an optimization problem). In this paper, we extend our framework for genetic algorithms (GA) as suggested by the reviewers of our previous ICLP paper [5]. Our purpose is not to solve efficiently the Balanced Academic Curriculum Problem (BACP) [2] but to combine a genetic algorithm with constraint programming techniques and to propose a general modelling framework to precisely design such hybrid resolution process and highlight their characteristics and properties.