IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/annopr/v194y2012i1p325-33910.1007-s10479-012-1078-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Solving the post enrolment course timetabling problem by ant colony optimization

Author

Listed:
  • Clemens Nothegger
  • Alfred Mayer
  • Andreas Chwatal
  • Günther Raidl

Abstract

In this work we present a new approach to tackle the problem of Post Enrolment Course Timetabling as specified for the International Timetabling Competition 2007 (ITC2007), competition track 2. The heuristic procedure is based on Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) where artificial ants successively construct solutions based on pheromones (stigmergy) and local information. The key feature of our algorithm is the use of two distinct but simplified pheromone matrices in order to improve convergence but still provide enough flexibility for effectively guiding the solution construction process. We show that by parallelizing the algorithm we can improve the solution quality significantly. We applied our algorithm to the instances used for the ITC2007. The results document that our approach is among the leading algorithms for this problem; in all cases the optimal solution could be found. Furthermore we discuss the characteristics of the instances where the algorithm performs especially well. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012

Suggested Citation

  • Clemens Nothegger & Alfred Mayer & Andreas Chwatal & Günther Raidl, 2012. "Solving the post enrolment course timetabling problem by ant colony optimization," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 194(1), pages 325-339, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:annopr:v:194:y:2012:i:1:p:325-339:10.1007/s10479-012-1078-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s10479-012-1078-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10479-012-1078-5
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10479-012-1078-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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. Burke, Edmund Kieran & Petrovic, Sanja, 2002. "Recent research directions in automated timetabling," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(2), pages 266-280, July.
    2. 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.
    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. 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.
    2. Goh, Say Leng & Kendall, Graham & Sabar, Nasser R., 2017. "Improved local search approaches to solve the post enrolment course timetabling problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 261(1), pages 17-29.
    3. Say Leng Goh & Graham Kendall & Nasser R. Sabar & Salwani Abdullah, 2020. "An effective hybrid local search approach for the post enrolment course timetabling problem," OPSEARCH, Springer;Operational Research Society of India, vol. 57(4), pages 1131-1163, December.
    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. Thepphakorn, Thatchai & Pongcharoen, Pupong & Hicks, Chris, 2014. "An ant colony based timetabling tool," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 131-144.

    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. 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.
    3. Sabar, Nasser R. & Ayob, Masri & Kendall, Graham & Qu, Rong, 2012. "A honey-bee mating optimization algorithm for educational timetabling problems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 216(3), pages 533-543.
    4. Ceschia, Sara & Di Gaspero, Luca & Schaerf, Andrea, 2023. "Educational timetabling: Problems, benchmarks, and state-of-the-art results," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 308(1), pages 1-18.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. Edmund Burke & Graham Kendall & Mustafa Mısır & Ender Özcan, 2012. "Monte Carlo hyper-heuristics for examination timetabling," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 196(1), pages 73-90, July.
    8. Soria-Alcaraz, Jorge A. & Ochoa, Gabriela & Swan, Jerry & Carpio, Martin & Puga, Hector & Burke, Edmund K., 2014. "Effective learning hyper-heuristics for the course timetabling problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 238(1), pages 77-86.
    9. Turabieh, Hamza & Abdullah, Salwani, 2011. "An integrated hybrid approach to the examination timetabling problem," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 598-607, December.
    10. 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.
    11. Yuri Bykov & Sanja Petrovic, 2016. "A Step Counting Hill Climbing Algorithm applied to University Examination Timetabling," Journal of Scheduling, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 479-492, August.
    12. Edmund K. Burke & Yuri Bykov, 2016. "An Adaptive Flex-Deluge Approach to University Exam Timetabling," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 28(4), pages 781-794, November.
    13. Arnaud Coster & Nysret Musliu & Andrea Schaerf & Johannes Schoisswohl & Kate Smith-Miles, 2022. "Algorithm selection and instance space analysis for curriculum-based course timetabling," Journal of Scheduling, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 35-58, February.
    14. Esmaeilbeigi, Rasul & Mak-Hau, Vicky & Yearwood, John & Nguyen, Vivian, 2022. "The multiphase course timetabling problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 300(3), pages 1098-1119.
    15. Song, Kwonsik & Kim, Sooyoung & Park, Moonseo & Lee, Hyun-Soo, 2017. "Energy efficiency-based course timetabling for university buildings," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 394-405.
    16. R. Alan Bowman, 2021. "Developing Optimal Student Plans of Study," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 51(6), pages 409-421, November.
    17. Gerhard Post & Samad Ahmadi & Sophia Daskalaki & Jeffrey Kingston & Jari Kyngas & Cimmo Nurmi & David Ranson, 2012. "An XML format for benchmarks in High School Timetabling," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 194(1), pages 385-397, April.
    18. 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.
    19. 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.
    20. 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.

    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:spr:annopr:v:194:y:2012:i:1:p:325-339:10.1007/s10479-012-1078-5. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.