Republic of the Philippines

UNIVERSITY OF ANTIQUE
COLLEGE OF COMPUTER STUDIES
Sibalom, Antique

CHAPTER I – Introduction

Timetabling problems can be classified into many different purposes and one of those is
the University course scheduling which appears to be a tedious job in every academic institute
once or twice a year. The problem involves the scheduling of classes for different students,
teachers and rooms at a fixed number of timeslots, in a way that satisfies a set of hard constraints
and minimize the cost of a set of soft constraints. Traditionally, the problem is solved manually
by trial and hit method, where a valid solution is not guaranteed. Even if a valid solution is
found, it is likely to miss far better solutions. These uncertainties have motivated scientific
studies of the problem to develop different automated solution techniques for it. In this work, the
university course scheduling problem will be handled; this includes the process of assigning a set
of classrooms and a set of instructors to a given set of courses taking into account a set of
constraints. The modified Min-Conflict Algorithm with Evolutionary programming will be the
key to this study. Wherein, the researchers will classify each schedule respectively, according on
the number of population of every courses and their field of studies as constraints. The study
focuses only on the overlapping issues that mostly occur in University scheduling processes.
The university class scheduling problem (UCSP) is one of the scheduling problems that have
been extensively studied over the last 25 years. University timetabling problems can be further
complicated by the often idiosyncratic requirements imposed by the particular institution being
considered.
 Republic of the Philippines
UNIVERSITY OF ANTIQUE
COLLEGE OF COMPUTER STUDIES
Sibalom, Antique

 Background of the Study

According to Al – Mahmud and M. A. H. Akhand of Khulna University of Engineering and

Technology, different techniques are investigated to solve UCSP. The popular meta-heuristic
population based algorithms such as Genetic Algorithm (GA), Tabu Search (TS), Simulated
Annealing (SA), and Ant Colony System (ACS) are well studied for UCSP. Various hybrid
metaheuristic algorithms are also proposed to solve UCSP such as Sequential TS–ACS, Hybrid
ACS/TS, and Sequential ACS–TS that have been found significantly better than each of their
non-hybrid competitors. There are two main reasons for which class scheduling is a challenging
task. The first reason is the exponential growth problem of this problem is due to the number of
variations and the faster growth students and secondly the number of constraints in each problem
is different in various institutes. So main difficult is on how to satisfy the number of soft
constraints in UCSP problem. Many studies solve examination timetabling problem using the
meta-heuristics based methods, such as simulated annealing, genetic algorithms , tabu search
(TS) and ant colony optimization (ACO) those employed hybrid heuristics involved four meta-
heuristics approaches (GA, SA, TS, and ACO). Some effective hybridization of exact algorithms
and meta-heuristics has been shown to achieve better quality, time performance, and robustness
than pure algorithm methods in scheduling problem. A combined GA and TS for solving flow
shop scheduling has been proposed in. They showed that the evolutionary process to a
population trained by a local improvement search bases on TS. A study for UCSP using the idea
of hybrid algorithms was proposed in. They adopted a genetic algorithm that combines a direct
representation of the timetable and heuristic crossover operators. Some other applications using
hybrid algorithm can be found in. Regarding to the latest applications of the hybrid algorithm for
UCSP was employed in which proposed a hybrid algorithm that combines an integer
programming, a greedy heuristic and a modified SA for solving UCSP. According to the research
work in, a combination of different heuristics and a combination of heuristics and AI (neural
networks, GAs, TS and SA) search techniques can greatly improve the quality of the solutions
and also be a future trend of algorithm development. Several graph based techniques are also
 Republic of the Philippines
UNIVERSITY OF ANTIQUE
COLLEGE OF COMPUTER STUDIES
Sibalom, Antique

been successfully applied to timetabling problem. These approaches use the concepts and
properties of different graphs. The Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization (HPSO), one of the most
recent algorithms, includes features to consider instructor’s preferences, and employs a repair
process updating instructor timetable with re-generated feasible time slots.

This paper presents a new heuristic algorithm based on constraint satisfaction problem to
be resolve by a modified Min-Conflict algorithm together with evolutionary programming
applied to the university course scheduling problem, where a feasible and comfort time tables are
required. Specifically, this study focuses on the following problems including overlapping
classes in every classroom respectively, the time adjustment or duration of every class per
classroom and the proper allocation of class vacancies per population. Currently, the latest
approach the researchers found out in related with this study uses genetic algorithm to resolve
the mentioned problems but this approach requires previous data’s to be used as basis of creating
solutions to this constraint satisfactory problems. To put it simply, this study tends to minimize
the number of conflicts brought up by the constraints satisfactory problems while depending on
the number of population present in a specific system and in the process of minimizing conflicts,
the algorithm automatically counts the number of the conflicts while allocating respective
positions of courses and making it scan the result over and over again if possible conflicts are
still aren’t minimal or solved out if applicable.
 Republic of the Philippines
UNIVERSITY OF ANTIQUE
COLLEGE OF COMPUTER STUDIES
Sibalom, Antique

 Research Problems

i. General Problems
a. The overlapping timeslot at the same room in the same time. The exact
number of class sessions per week. The efficiency of vacancies
allocation per population.

ii. Specific Problems

a. The efficiency of the modified min conflicts algorithm with

evolutionary programming in solving out overlapping schedules per course per
room.

b. The efficiency of the class schedules with certain number class that
occur in a week per room per day.
c. The effectiveness of proper vacancies allocation per room per class per
day.
 Research Objectives
i. General Objectives
a. To lessen the average number of problems taken mostly by subject
scheduling every semesters of one academic year. To create a more
efficient timetabling algorithm based on corresponding conflicts and prove
that evolutionary programming can be treated as a solution. To improve
this research from the past used algorithm related from this title and to
upgrade and improve the related algorithm used from this research title.
ii. Specific Objectives
a. To lessen the overlapping schedules for every class and subjects per
population.
b. To properly take advantage of vacancies by other classes per population
per room.
 Republic of the Philippines
UNIVERSITY OF ANTIQUE
COLLEGE OF COMPUTER STUDIES
Sibalom, Antique

c. To efficiently assign classes per course per room without duplicates.

 Scope and Limitations

The scope of this research study focuses only on two algorithms. The first
algorithm is the Min-Conflict Algorithm which is a heuristic method to
solve constraint satisfaction problems (CSP). And the second algorithm is the
Evolutionary Programming which is inspired by the theory of evolution by means of
natural selection. Specifically, the technique is inspired by macro-level or the species-
level process of evolution (phenotype, hereditary, variation) and is not concerned
with the genetic mechanisms of evolution (genome, chromosomes, genes, alleles).
The study limits only on the overlapping schedules of every course and the proper
allocation and distribution of vacancies, and the proper allocation of classrooms. The
researcher’s doesn’t intend to create good schedules for instructors or the students but
overlapping free schedules. Any study in connection with the scheduling problems
that isn’t introduced by the researchers doesn’t affect the researcher’s study and will
not concern the researchers.

 Significance of the study

The findings of this study will benefit every university experiencing
problems on overlapping schedules of courses every start of semester. The
benefits are to minimize the conflict of overlapping time schedules, to prevent
course that lacks classrooms, and to allocate properly and take advantage of
vacancies. And provide more efficient timetabling results for respective rooms on
4every class.
 Republic of the Philippines
UNIVERSITY OF ANTIQUE
COLLEGE OF COMPUTER STUDIES
Sibalom, Antique

 Definition of Terms

 Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) - are mathematical questions

defined as a set of objects whose state must satisfy a number of constraints or
limitations.

 Evolutionary Programming - Evolutionary Programming is a Global

Optimization algorithm and is an instance of an Evolutionary Algorithm from
the field of Evolutionary Computation. Evolutionary Programming is inspired
by the theory of evolution by means of natural selection. Specifically, the
technique is inspired by macro-level or the species-level process of evolution
(phenotype, hereditary, variation) and is not concerned with the genetic
mechanisms of evolution (genome, chromosomes, genes, alleles).

 NP – Nondeterministic Polynomial

 NP-Complete - is a complexity class which represents the set of all problems

X in NP for which it is possible to reduce any other NP problem Y to X in
polynomial time.

 NP-Hard - Intuitively, these are the problems that are at least as hard as the
NP-complete problems. Note that NP-hard problems do not have to be in NP,
and they do not have to be decision problems.
 Republic of the Philippines
UNIVERSITY OF ANTIQUE
COLLEGE OF COMPUTER STUDIES
Sibalom, Antique

 Stochastic - describes an approach to anything that is based on probability.

 Timetabling - the act of scheduling something to happen or do something at
a particular time.

 Heuristic - is any approach to problem solving, learning, or discovery that

employs a practical method, not guaranteed to be optimal, perfect, logical, or
rational, but instead sufficient for reaching an immediate goal.

 Feasible - able to be done or put into effect; possible

 Ant Colony System - The Ant Colony System algorithm is an example of an

Ant Colony Optimization method from the field of Swarm Intelligence,
Metaheuristic and Computational Intelligence. Ant Colony System is an
extension to the Ant System algorithm and is related to other Ant Colony
Optimization methods such as Elite Ant System, and Rank-based Ant System.

 Genetic Algorithm - The genetic algorithm is a method for solving both

constrained and unconstrained optimization problems that is based on natural
selection, the process that drives biological evolution. The genetic algorithm
repeatedly modifies a population of individual solutions. At each step, the
genetic algorithm selects individuals at random from the current population to
be parents and uses them to produce the children for the next generation. Over
successive generations, the population "evolves" toward an optimal solution.
You can apply the genetic algorithm to solve a variety of optimization
problems that are not well suited for standard optimization algorithms,
including problems in which the objective function is discontinuous, non-
differentiable, stochastic, or highly nonlinear. The genetic algorithm can
 Republic of the Philippines
UNIVERSITY OF ANTIQUE
COLLEGE OF COMPUTER STUDIES
Sibalom, Antique

address problems of mixed integer programming, where some components are

restricted to be integer-valued.
 Tabu Search - Tabu Search is a Global Optimization algorithm and a
Metaheuristic or Meta-strategy for controlling an embedded heuristic
technique. Tabu Search is a parent for a large family of derivative approaches
that introduce memory structures in Metaheuristic, such as Reactive Tabu
Search and Parallel Tabu Search.

 Simulated Annealing - is a probabilistic technique for approximating

the global optimum of a given function. Specifically, it is a metaheuristic to
approximate global optimization in a large search space. It is often used when
the search space is discrete (e.g., all tours that visit a given set of cities). For
problems where finding an approximate global optimum is more important
than finding a precise local optimum in a fixed amount of time, simulated
annealing may be preferable to alternatives such as gradient descent.