An examination timetabling problem taken from real world universities was proposed at the International Timetabling Competition (ITC2007). The aim was to establish a common base for comparing different solution approaches. This paper presents new preprocessing methods that disclose hidden constraints and significantly increase the number of new edges that can be added to the conflict graph. Res...

Ordering exams by simultaneously considering two ordering criteria using a fuzzy expert system is presented in this paper. Combinations of two of the three ordering criteria largest degree, saturation degree and largest enrollment are considered. The fuzzy weight of an exam is used to represent how difficult it is to schedule. The decreasingly ordered exams are sequentially chosen to be assigne...

Timetabling problems are well known complicated constraint satisfaction problems. A new realworld course timetabling problem is described in this study. The difficulty in approximating to an optimal solution in a reasonable time increases for the large problem instances regardless of the algorithm used. An incremental strategy that aims to relieve this difficulty to some extent combined with a ...

7 In this paper we present an integer programming method for solving the Classroom Assignment Problem in University Course Timetabling. We introduce a novel formulation of the problem which generalises existing models and maintains tractability even for large instances. The model is validated through computational results based on our experiences at the University of Auckland, and on instances ...

In this paper we describe a heavily constrained university timetabling problem, and our genetic algorithm based approach to solve it. A problem-specific chromosome representation and knowledge-augmented genetic operators have been developed; these operators ‘intelligently’ avoid building illegal timetables. The prototype timetabling system which is presented has been implemented in C and PROLOG...

Timetabling problem is among the most difficult operational tasks and an important step in raising industrial productivity, capability, capacity. Such are usually tackled using metaheuristics techniques that provide intelligent way of suggesting solutions or decision-making. Swarm intelligence including Particle Optimization (PSO) have proved to be effective examples. Different recent experimen...

Grouping problems are hard to solve combinatorial optimisation problems which require partitioning of objects into a minimum number of subsets while a given objective is simultaneously optimized. Selection hyper-heuristics are high level general purpose search methodologies that operate on a space formed by a set of low level heuristics rather than solutions. Most of the recently proposed selec...

We propose a flexible model and several integer linear programming and constraint programming formulations for integrated employee timetabling and production scheduling problems. A hybrid constraint and linear programming exact method is designed to solve a basic integrated employee timetabling and job-shop scheduling problem for lexicographic minimization of makespan and labor costs. Prelimina...

The aim of this paper is to analyze and to improve the current planning process of the passenger railway service in light of the recent railway market changes. In order to do so, we introduce the Passenger Centric Train Timetabling Problem. The originality of our approach is that we account for the passenger satisfaction in the design of the timetable. We consider both types of timetable(s): cy...