IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ejores/v212y2011i3p464-472.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Lower bounds for the ITC-2007 curriculum-based course timetabling problem

Author

Listed:
  • Hao, Jin-Kao
  • Benlic, Una

Abstract

This paper describes an approach for generating lower bounds for the curriculum-based course timetabling problem, which was presented at the International Timetabling Competition (ITC-2007, Track 3). So far, several methods based on integer linear programming have been proposed for computing lower bounds of this minimization problem. We present a new partition-based approach that is based on the "divide and conquer" principle. The proposed approach uses iterative tabu search to partition the initial problem into sub-problems which are solved with an ILP solver. Computational outcomes show that this approach is able to improve on the current best lower bounds for 12 out of the 21 benchmark instances, and to prove optimality for 6 of them. These new lower bounds are useful to estimate the quality of the upper bounds obtained with various heuristic approaches.

Suggested Citation

  • Hao, Jin-Kao & Benlic, Una, 2011. "Lower bounds for the ITC-2007 curriculum-based course timetabling problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 212(3), pages 464-472, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:212:y:2011:i:3:p:464-472
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377-2217(11)00150-0
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barry McCollum & Andrea Schaerf & Ben Paechter & Paul McMullan & Rhyd Lewis & Andrew J. Parkes & Luca Di Gaspero & Rong Qu & Edmund K. Burke, 2010. "Setting the Research Agenda in Automated Timetabling: The Second International Timetabling Competition," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 22(1), pages 120-130, February.
    2. Lü, Zhipeng & Hao, Jin-Kao, 2010. "Adaptive Tabu Search for course timetabling," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 200(1), pages 235-244, January.
    3. De Causmaecker, Patrick & Demeester, Peter & Vanden Berghe, Greet, 2009. "A decomposed metaheuristic approach for a real-world university timetabling problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 195(1), pages 307-318, May.
    4. Michel Vasquez & Jin-Kao Hao, 2003. "Upper Bounds for the SPOT 5 Daily Photograph Scheduling Problem," Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 87-103, March.
    5. Al-Yakoob, Salem M. & Sherali, Hanif D., 2007. "A mixed-integer programming approach to a class timetabling problem: A case study with gender policies and traffic considerations," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 180(3), pages 1028-1044, August.
    6. van den Broek, John & Hurkens, Cor & Woeginger, Gerhard, 2009. "Timetabling problems at the TU Eindhoven," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 196(3), pages 877-885, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vermuyten, Hendrik & Lemmens, Stef & Marques, Inês & Beliën, Jeroen, 2016. "Developing compact course timetables with optimized student flows," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 251(2), pages 651-661.
    2. Andrea Bettinelli & Valentina Cacchiani & Roberto Roberti & Paolo Toth, 2015. "An overview of curriculum-based course timetabling," TOP: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 23(2), pages 313-349, July.
    3. Bagger, Niels-Christian F. & Sørensen, Matias & Stidsen, Thomas R., 2019. "Dantzig–Wolfe decomposition of the daily course pattern formulation for curriculum-based course timetabling," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 272(2), pages 430-446.
    4. Michael Lindahl & Matias Sørensen & Thomas R. Stidsen, 2018. "A fix-and-optimize matheuristic for university timetabling," Journal of Heuristics, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 645-665, August.
    5. Niels-Christian Fink Bagger & Guy Desaulniers & Jacques Desrosiers, 2019. "Daily course pattern formulation and valid inequalities for the curriculum-based course timetabling problem," Journal of Scheduling, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 155-172, April.
    6. Massimiliano Caramia & Stefano Giordani, 2020. "Curriculum-Based Course Timetabling with Student Flow, Soft Constraints, and Smoothing Objectives: an Application to a Real Case Study," SN Operations Research Forum, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 1-21, June.
    7. Niels-Christian F. Bagger & Simon Kristiansen & Matias Sørensen & Thomas R. Stidsen, 2019. "Flow formulations for curriculum-based course timetabling," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 280(1), pages 121-150, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andrea Bettinelli & Valentina Cacchiani & Roberto Roberti & Paolo Toth, 2015. "An overview of curriculum-based course timetabling," TOP: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 23(2), pages 313-349, July.
    2. Vermuyten, Hendrik & Lemmens, Stef & Marques, Inês & Beliën, Jeroen, 2016. "Developing compact course timetables with optimized student flows," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 251(2), pages 651-661.
    3. Alejandro Cataldo & Juan-Carlos Ferrer & Jaime Miranda & Pablo A. Rey & Antoine Sauré, 2017. "An integer programming approach to curriculum-based examination timetabling," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 258(2), pages 369-393, November.
    4. Fabian Dunke & Stefan Nickel, 2023. "A matheuristic for customized multi-level multi-criteria university timetabling," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 328(2), pages 1313-1348, September.
    5. Martin Geiger, 2012. "Applying the threshold accepting metaheuristic to curriculum based course timetabling," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 194(1), pages 189-202, April.
    6. Moritz Mühlenthaler & Rolf Wanka, 2016. "Fairness in academic course timetabling," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 239(1), pages 171-188, April.
    7. Mutsunori Banbara & Katsumi Inoue & Benjamin Kaufmann & Tenda Okimoto & Torsten Schaub & Takehide Soh & Naoyuki Tamura & Philipp Wanko, 2019. "$${\varvec{teaspoon}}$$ teaspoon : solving the curriculum-based course timetabling problems with answer set programming," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 275(1), pages 3-37, April.
    8. Lü, Zhipeng & Hao, Jin-Kao, 2012. "Adaptive neighborhood search for nurse rostering," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 218(3), pages 865-876.
    9. Alexander Kiefer & Richard F. Hartl & Alexander Schnell, 2017. "Adaptive large neighborhood search for the curriculum-based course timetabling problem," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 252(2), pages 255-282, May.
    10. Kahar, M.N.M. & Kendall, G., 2010. "The examination timetabling problem at Universiti Malaysia Pahang: Comparison of a constructive heuristic with an existing software solution," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 207(2), pages 557-565, December.
    11. Lewis, R. & Thompson, J., 2015. "Analysing the effects of solution space connectivity with an effective metaheuristic for the course timetabling problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 240(3), pages 637-648.
    12. Edmund Burke & Jakub Mareček & Andrew Parkes & Hana Rudová, 2012. "A branch-and-cut procedure for the Udine Course Timetabling problem," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 194(1), pages 71-87, April.
    13. Dennis S. Holm & Rasmus Ø. Mikkelsen & Matias Sørensen & Thomas J. R. Stidsen, 2022. "A graph-based MIP formulation of the International Timetabling Competition 2019," Journal of Scheduling, Springer, vol. 25(4), pages 405-428, August.
    14. Gerhard Post & Luca Gaspero & Jeffrey H. Kingston & Barry McCollum & Andrea Schaerf, 2016. "The Third International Timetabling Competition," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 239(1), pages 69-75, April.
    15. Domenech, B & Lusa, A, 2016. "A MILP model for the teacher assignment problem considering teachers’ preferences," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 249(3), pages 1153-1160.
    16. Bhuvnesh Sharma & M. Ramkumar & Nachiappan Subramanian & Bharat Malhotra, 2019. "Dynamic temporary blood facility location-allocation during and post-disaster periods," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 283(1), pages 705-736, December.
    17. Mohammed Al-Betar & Ahamad Khader & Iyad Doush, 2014. "Memetic techniques for examination timetabling," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 218(1), pages 23-50, July.
    18. Michele Battistutta & Andrea Schaerf & Tommaso Urli, 2017. "Feature-based tuning of single-stage simulated annealing for examination timetabling," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 252(2), pages 239-254, May.
    19. Roberto Asín Achá & Robert Nieuwenhuis, 2014. "Curriculum-based course timetabling with SAT and MaxSAT," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 218(1), pages 71-91, July.
    20. Kadri Sylejmani & Edon Gashi & Adrian Ymeri, 2023. "Simulated annealing with penalization for university course timetabling," Journal of Scheduling, Springer, vol. 26(5), pages 497-517, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:212:y:2011:i:3:p:464-472. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.