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A Language for Specifying Complete Timetabling Problems

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Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling III (PATAT 2000)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2079))

Abstract

The timetabling problem consists in fixing a sequence of meetings between teachers and students in a given period of time, satisfying a set of different constraints. There are a number of different versions of the timetabling problem. These include school timetabling (where students are grouped in classes with similar degree plans), university timetabling (where students are considered individually) and examination timetabling (i.e. scheduling of university exams, avoiding student double booking). Several other problems are also associated with the more general timetabling problem, including room allocation, meeting scheduling, staff allocation and invigilator assignment. Many data formats have been developed for representing different timetabling problems. The variety of data formats currently in use, and the diversity of existing timetabling problems, makes the comparison of research results and exchange of data concerning real problems extremely difficult.

In this paper we identify eight timetabling sub-problems and, based on that identification, we present a new language (UniLang) for representing timetabling problems. UniLang intends to be a standard suitable as input language for any timetabling system. It enables a clear and natural representation of data, constraints, quality measures and solutions for different timetabling (as well as related) problems, such as school timetabling, university timetabling and examination scheduling.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. LIACC — Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science Lab., University of Porto, Portugal

    Luìs Paulo Reis

  2. UFP — CEREM, Multimedia Resource Center, Praça 9 de Abril, 349, 4200, Porto, Portugal

    Eugénio Oliveira

Authors
  1. Luìs Paulo Reis
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  2. Eugénio Oliveira
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computer Science and Information Technology Automated Scheduling, Optimisation and Planning Research Group, University of Nottingham, Jubilee Campus,Wollaton Road, NG8 1BB, Nottingham, UK

    Edmund Burke

  2. Department of Computer Science, FH Konstanz, University of Applied Science, Brauneggerstr. 55, 78462, Konstanz, Germany

    Wilhelm Erben

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Reis, L.P., Oliveira, E. (2001). A Language for Specifying Complete Timetabling Problems. In: Burke, E., Erben, W. (eds) Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling III. PATAT 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2079. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44629-X_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44629-X_20

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-42421-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-44629-3

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