http://doc.utwente.nl/75057/1/PATAT10_Proceedings.pdf#page=225Examination Timetabling for Universities is a problem with significant practical
importance. It belongs to the general class of educational timetabling problems and has been
exposed to numerous approaches for solving it. We propose a parallel/distributed solution which is
based on the metaheuristic method Scatter Search combined with Path Relinking in an attempt to
diversify the search procedure by producing promising new timetables. Our approach improves on
the best publicly available results for the datasets of ITC2007 (International Timetabling
Competition 2007-2008). The constraint of limited execution time that was imposed by ITC2007
was disregarded in an effort to pursue the best values our approach could reach. We consider this
specific examination timetabling problem as a “test bed” for timetabling problems in general and
we expect to provide insight for developing effective solution processes for other practical
scheduling problems
