Article ID: | iaor20011336 |
Country: | United Kingdom |
Volume: | 27 |
Issue: | 9 |
Start Page Number: | 819 |
End Page Number: | 840 |
Publication Date: | Aug 2000 |
Journal: | Computers and Operations Research |
Authors: | Ohta Hiroshi, Deris Safaai, Omatu Sigeru |
Keywords: | heuristics |
College timetabling is a combinatoric and dynamic problem. In order to solve this problem, the approach must be efficient, flexible, portable, and adaptable. This paper describes a solution procedure based on a constraint-based reasoning technique implemented in an object-oriented approach. The problem is formulated as a constraint satisfaction model and it is then solved using the proposed algorithm. The algorithm is tested using real data from one of the colleges offering professional courses. The results show that a 18-weeks timetable for 1673 subject sections, 10 rooms, 21 lecturers can be solved in less than 33 minutes as compared to several weeks if it is to be solved manually. Since it is implemented using the object-oriented approach, the proposed system can also be modified and easily adapted to support changes.