University Timetabling: Bridging the Gap between Research and Practice

As an academic in the School of Computer Science at Queen’s University, a visiting researcher to the Automated Scheduling, Opimisation and Planning (ASAP) group within the School of Computer Science and IT at the University of Nottingham and Managing Director of eventMAP Limited, a university technological spin out company, the author is in a unique position to provide comments on both the practice and theory of timetabling (automated and otherwise) within the university sector. The study of the relationship and interaction between the work carried out in the academic literature and the requirements of university administrators is essential if ideas generated by research are to benefit every day users. Conversely, it is crucial the needs of the timetabling community influence the direction taken by research if high quality practical solutions are to be produced. A main objective of the work presented here is to provide up-to-date information which will enable researchers to further investigate the area of timetabling research in relation to the generation of robust and flexible techniques which can cope with complexities experienced during implementation in ‘real world’ scenarios. Furthermore, although not discussed here in detail, it is essential, from a commercial perspective, that these developed leading edge techniques are incorporated and used within general applicable timetabling tools. The aim of this paper is to motivate the discussion required to bridge this timetabling gap by bringing timetabling research and educational requirements closer together.