Agent technology promises possibilities for the design of distributed systems, the design of open systems and the reduction of information overload for the users. Timetabling applications must operate in heterogeneous environments at large organisations where users cannot be bothered with all the details influencing their work schedules. It is a domain where, at least at the system level, many ...

While mathematical optimization and operations research receive growing attention in the railway sector, computerized timetabling tools that actually make significant use of optimization remain relatively rare. SICS has developed a prototype tool for non-periodic timetabling that minimizes resource conflicts, enabling the user to focus on the strategic decisions. The prototype is called the Mar...

This paper discusses a series of recombination operators for the timetabling problem. These operators act upon a direct representation of the timetable and maintain the property of feasibility. That is that there are no conflicts and no overfilled rooms. Various approaches to solving the timetabling problem using evolutionary computing methods are first compared. The recombination operators are...

This paper presents STTL, a language for communicating, storing, and evaluating timetabling problems, instances, and solutions. An interpreter for STTL is freely available on the Internet. The paper also includes a case study of high school timetabling.

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 prac...

University timetabling problems are a yearly challenging task and faced repeatedly each semester. The considered non-polynomial time (NP) combinatorial optimization (COP), which means that they can be solved through algorithms to produce the aspired optimal timetable. Several techniques have been used solve university problems, most of them use techniques. This paper provides comprehensive revi...

The university course timetabling problem is a difficult optimisation problem due to its highly-constrained nature. Finding an optimal, or even a high quality, timetable is a challenging task, especially when resources (e.g., rooms and time slots) are limited. In the literature, many approaches have been studied to solve this problem. In this thesis, we investigate genetic algorithms to solve t...

Timetabling manually is a complex activity that is time-consuming and stressful because a high number of high and soft constraints need to be satisfied; there is therefore the need to automate the timetabling process. Timetabling automating involves combinatorial optimization, time-based planning, realizing highly constrained problems and addressing multi-dimensional complexities. Researchers h...

University timetabling problem is a very common and seemingly simple, but yet very difficult problem to solve in practice. While solution definitely exists (evidenced by the fact that we do hold classes), an automated optimal schedule is very difficult to derive at present. There were successful attempts to address this problem using heuristics search methods. However, until now, university tim...

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 ...