Combinations of metaheuristics to solve highly constrained combinatorial optimisation problems have recently become a promising research area. Some combinations emerge from integrating evolutionary algorithms and local based algorithms to strike the right balance between global exploration of the search region and local exploitation of promising regions. This study presents hybridization betwee...

The university course timetabling problem consists, in essence, of assigning lectures to a specific timeslot and room. The goal is to satisfy as many soft constraints as possible while constructing a feasible schedule. In this paper, we present a variable neighbourhood search approach with an exponential monte carlo acceptance criteria. This heuristic search approach is based on random-descent ...

We use Constraint Logic Programming and develop methods , techniques and concepts for a combined automatic and interactive timetabling of university courses and school curricula. An instance of such a timetabling system was developed for the Charit e Medical Faculty at the Humboldt University, Berlin. This paper looks at methods and techniques for solving this timetabling problem. An essential ...

In this paper we have presented a combination of two metaheuristics, namely great deluge and tabu search, for solving the university course timetabling problem. This problem occurs during the assignment of a set of courses to specific timeslots and rooms within a working week and subject to a variety of hard and soft constraints. Essentially a set of hard constraints must be satisfied in order ...

Although they have been investigated for more than two decades, university examination timetabling problems are still considered challenging and interesting problems. In our study, we are investigating student preferences for the control of the time gaps between examinations; specifically, what students consider to be best for them and also fair between students. To support this, we conducted a...

The university course timetabling problem (UCTP) is a combinatorial NP-complete problem that has been subject to research since the early 1960’s. Numerous solution techniques have been applied to the timetabling problem ever since. This paper aims at formulating an immune-inspired algorithm, namely the Clonal Selection Algorithm1 (CSA1) and testing its ability in solving the UCTP against the Ge...

The timetabling problem is well known to be NP complete combinatorial problem. The problem becomes even more complex when addressed to individual timetables of students. The core of dealing with the problem in this application is a timetable builder based on mixed direct-indirect encoding evolved by a genetic algorithm with a self-adaptation paradigm, where the parameters of the genetic algorit...

The most complete form of academic timetabling problem is the population and course timetabling problem. In this problem, there may be multiple classes of each subject, and the decision on which students are to constitute each class is made in concert with the decision on the timetable for each class. In order to solve this problem, it is normally simplified or decomposed in some fashion. One s...

This paper discusses a new solution to university course timetabling problems. The problems that belong to the NP-hard class are very difficult to solve using conventional optimization techniques. Our solution methodology is based on a genetic algorithm which uses an installed knowledge base and an infection operation. The knowledge base here is a set of candidate partial solutions of the final...