Agent based approach to University Timetabling Problem

A concept of agent-based approach to timetabling problem is presented. Based on the problem description and with its formalization the term agent is introduced. Agents act on behalf of entities taking part in the timetabling process (activities, rooms and students) and they interact to maximize their own utility. Also a brief overview of existing approaches is presented

Goal programming approach to solve the timetabling problem at Turkish Military Academy

Cataloged from PDF version of article.The aim of this study is to propose a goal programming model to solve the timetabling problem at Turkish Military Academy. Since the problem is NPcomplete, it’s not easy to find an optimal solution all the time. It takes a lot of time of the people who are responsible to prepare the timetables of TMA. The model consists in all of the requirements, and is tested with the real data provided by Planning and Programming Department. Since the problem is so big to solve at once as a whole, a five-step iterative solution procedure is proposed. There are four priorities, three for teacher preferences and one for teaching loads. The model aims to minimize the deviations from the preferences and teaching loads of the teachers. Solution process produced a feasible and near-optimal timetable after four steps, in a reasonably short time compared to hand-made timetabling procedure. The result was improved by making some modifications in step five. In the conclusion, we mentioned the problems we faced, and presented our suggestions for future research.Şahin, TunaM.S

Uma proposta baseada em algoritmo genético para o problema timetable escolar compacto

Orientador : Prof. Dr. Sérgio ScheerOrientador : Prof. Dr. Anderson Roges Teixeira GóesDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Tecnologia, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Métodos Numéricos em Engenharia. Defesa: Curitiba, 11/12/2015Inclui referências : f.74-79Resumo: O início do ano letivo é marcado por um desafio clássico a uma equipe pedagógica: montar a distribuição de aulas e turmas aos professores, um Scholar Timetabling Problem, atendendo necessidades apresentadas pelo corpo docente e garantindo que a carga horária semanal de cada disciplina seja cumprida em sua totalidade para as turmas. É comum, tanto em escolas públicas quanto particulares de pequeno e médio porte, que este trabalho ainda seja realizado manualmente por vários motivos: hábito; desconhecimento ou falta de habilidade com softwares pagos ou gratuitos; gosto pelo desafio ou por envolver custos que poderiam ser evitados. As variáveis do problema envolvem produtos entre as quantidades de professores, turmas, dias letivos na semana e aulas por dia, tornando o universo de possíveis soluções relativamente grande. Dependendo do método escolhido, o processo de busca de uma solução factível é desgastante, árduo e demanda considerável período de tempo normalmente escasso. O atendimento da disponibilidade dos dias em que ministram aulas é de extrema importância para os professores de pequenas escolas, que geralmente mantem outros vínculos empregatícios. É preciso que janelas e aulas isoladas sejam minimizadas e, sendo possível, evitadas. Neste contexto a presente pesquisa visa construir uma interface que receba os dados do problema e, após valida-los, seja capaz de fornecer uma solução ao problema que seja factível e na qual a quantidade de janelas seja mínima. O uso de meta-heurística baseada em Algoritmo Genético neste processamento se dá pela eficiência com que este método se aproxima de soluções com boa qualidade. Foram utilizados dados reais de duas escolas de ensino fundamental de pequeno porte de região de Curitiba-PR para validar os processos desenvolvidos. Inicialmente se conjecturou que reduzindo o número de janelas nas grades horárias dos professores se conseguiria um horário concentrado no mínimo de dias necessários, satisfazendo as restrições apresentadas. A redução de janelas ocorreu devido à penalização destas situações durante a execução da meta-heurística, favorecendo soluções que apresentaram as menores quantidades de janelas. Foram obtidos horários concentrados dentro de um dia letivo, porém dispersos na semana dos professores com maior disponibilidade de dias. Os resultados obtidos demonstram que a redução de janelas é importante, mas não é suficiente para minimizar a quantidade de dias de trabalho. Palavras-chaves: Scholar Timetabling Problem. Otimização. Meta-heurística. Algoritmo Genético.Abstract: The beginning of the school year is marked by a classic challenge for a pedagogical team: assembling a distribution of classes to the teachers, a scholar timetabling problem, by meeting needs presented by the teaching staff and ensuring that the weekly duration of each discipline is fully accomplished for the classes. In both public and private schools, small or medium, it is still common to do this task manually for several reasons: habit; unfamiliarity or lack of skill with paid or free software; a taste for challenge or avoiding unnecessary costs. The variables of the problem involve products between the numbers of teachers, classes, school days a week and classes per day, making the universe of possible solutions relatively large. Depending on the chosen method, the process of searching for a feasible solution is exhausting, difficult and demands a considerable period of time usually scarce. Satisfying the days' availability is of utmost importance for the small schools teachers, who usually maintain other employment relationships. It is required that idle slots and isolated classes be minimized and, if possible, avoided. In this context, the present research aims to build an interface that receives the issue data and, after validating them, is able to provide a feasible solution to the problem, with a minimal amount of idle slots. The use of a metaheuristic based on Genetic Algorithms in this processing is given by the efficiency with which this method approximates to solutions with good quality. Real data from two small primary schools in the region of Curitiba-PR were used to validate the developed processes. Initially, it was conjectured that, by reducing the number of idle slots in the teachers' schedules, it would be possible to get a schedule concentrated on the minimum days needed, satisfying the presented constraints. The reduction of idle slots occurred due to the penalty of these situations during the metaheuristic execution, favoring solutions that had the lowest amounts of slots. Timetables without slots were obtained with lessons concentrated within a school day, yet dispersed in the week of the teachers with greater availability. The obtained results show that the reduction of slots is important, but not sufficient to minimize the number of workdays. Key-words: Scholar Timetabling Problem. Optimization. Metaheuristics. Genetic Algorithm

Software Engineering aspects of constraint-based timetabling – a case study

This paper 2 details the stages of building a substantial, carefully specified, fully tested and fully operational university and school timetabling system. This is reported as a case study in applying Constraint Satisfaction techniques. The emphasis is on the software engineering aspects of the problem. That is, Constraint Satisfaction problems are expressed in a language more familiar to the formal software engineering community. Moreover, this language is used to formulate domain constraints and heuristic information. In addition to that, the user's needs are looked at more closely. For instance, the system supplies indications useful for relaxing or reformulating the constraints of the problem when a solution satisfying these constraints is impossible to produce. This has a value in bringing Constraint Satisfaction one-step closer to formal specification, program verification and transformation