Applications of Tabu Search

OPIM 950
Gary Chen
9/29/03
Basic Tabu Search Overview
 Pick an arbitrary point and evaluate an initial solution
 Compute next set of solutions within neighborhood of
current solution
 Pick best solution from the set.
 If solution is on Tabu (or forbidden) list, pick next
best solution. Repeat until you come across solution
not on Tabu list.
 After solution is chosen, repeat from step 2 until
optima is reached.
 Parameters for tuning: Number of iterations, penalty
points, size of Taboo list
Applications
 Bioengineering
 Finance

 Manufacturing

 Scheduling

 Political Districting

Many of the applications of Tabu Search

are very similar to Simulated Annealing
Application 1: Student Course
Scheduling
 Problem: Registering for classes
required students waiting in long
queues.
 Solution: Allow course registration over
the internet and using OR techniques
(tabu search), give student satisfactory
time schedule as well as balance section
loads.
Objectives and Constraints
 Main Objective: Find conflict-free time
schedule for each student
 Secondary Objectives:
 Balance number of classes per day
 Minimize gaps between classes
 Respect language preferences
 Student course selections must be respected
 Section enrollment must be balanced
 Section maximum capacity cannot be
exceeded
Implementation - Part 1
 Construct student timetable without
considering section enrollments
 Model course sections as undirected graphs
2
2 3 5

1 2 3 5
6
6
1

4
1

1
Maximum Cardinality
Independent Sets
 Objective: Find sets that contain one
section of each course.
 Algorithm
 Find all cliques in the graphs.
 Pick one node or no nodes from each
clique. Check if it’s a valid schedule. If it is
retain as a possible solution set.
 repeat
Implementation - Part 2
 Balance out section enrollment
 Each student has a set of possible time
schedules.
 “Optimal” time schedule for a student
adheres to following criteria:
 Balance number of classes per day
 Minimize gaps between classes
 Respect language preferences
Tabu Search
 Objective: Find satisfactory course
schedule.
 “Satisfactory” being a solution no more
than a threshold cost distance from the
“optimal” course scheduling.
 Tabu list contains previously tried student
course schedules.
 Tabu search combined with strategic
oscillation used.
Strategic Oscillation
 Perform moves until hitting a boundary.
 Modify objective constraints or extend
neighborhood function to allow crossing
over to infeasible region.
 Proceed beyond boundary for a set
depth
 Turn around to enforce feasibility
Strategic Oscillation (Cont)

 For course selection, class size is strategically

oscillated.
Application 2: Tabu Search for
Political Districting
 Problem: Partition a territory into voting
districts. Political influence problems.
 Solution: Using tabu search for deciding
districts will result in a fair, unbiased
answer
Constraints
 Districts should be contiguous
 Voting population should be close to evenly
divided among the districts
 Natural boundaries should be respected
 Existing political subdivisions, such as
townships, should be respected
 Socio-economic homogeneity
 Integrity of communities should be respected
General Solution Strategy
 Clustering approach
 First pick several pre-determined centroid
districts.
 “Grow” districts outward.
 Previous attempts
 Branch-and-bound trees (NP-hard)
 Simulated annealing
Problem Formulation
 minimize

 i are user-supplied multiplers

 fpop(x) = population equality function
 fcomp(x) = compactness function
 fsoc(x) = socio-economic homogeneity function
 fsim(x) = similarity to previous districting function
 fint() = integrity of communities function
 Population Equality

Pj(x) – represents population for each j district

- represents total population/#districts
 - represents user-defined constant fraction, 0   1
Require population in each district [(1-) , (1+) ]
Should equal 0 if each district lies in interval.
Otherwise, will take a positive value
Compactness

 Rj(x) = length of jth district boundary

 R = perimeter of entire territory
Socio-Economic Homogeneity

 Sj(x) = standard deviation of income in

district j.
 = average income in entire territory
Similarity to Previous
Districting

 Oj(x) = largest overlay of district j and

similar district in new solution
 A = Entire territory area
Example
Integrity of Communities

 Gj(x) = largest population of a given

community (Chinese, latino, etc) in
district j.
 Pj(x) = total population in district j.
Tabu Search
 Start with initial solution
 Start with a seed unit for initializing a
district.
 “Grow” district by merging it with adjacent
units until reached or no adjacent unit
are available.
Tabu Search (cont)
 After initial solution created, two possible
moves.
 Give – give a basic unit from one district to
another
 Swap – swap basic units along boundary of two
adjacent districts
 Any basic units swapped or given are placed
on a tabu list.
 Algorithm stops when value of current best
solution has no improvements from previously
known best solution.
Example
References
 Alvarez-Valdes, R. et al. Assigning students to course sections
using tabu search. Annals of Operations Research. Vol. 96
(2000) p. 1-16
 Bozkaya, Burcin. A tabu search heuristic and adaptive memory
procedure for political districting. European Journal of
Operational Research. Vol. 144 (2003) p. 12-26.