Skip to main content

Neighborhood Analysis on the University Timetabling Problem

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2017 (ICCSA 2017)

Abstract

Metaheuristics define and explore a set of different neighborhoods, in general, adapted to specific characteristics of a problem. The quality of the solution found relies on the efficiency of the neighborhood used on the local search phase, therefore it is very important to research about the movements or combination of them which compose the neighborhood structure. This paper is based on a recent work reported on literature that deals with four standard movements for the university timetabling problem. This work complements the analysis already done so far, adding five new movements widely known in the literature. Two of then are specific for the restrictions adopted by the curriculum-based formulation proposed on the Second International Timetabling Competition (ITC-2007). The Steepest Descent (SD) algorithm was implemented to study each movement separately and combined. This analysis shows that the quality of the solutions is highly affected by the movements chosen, since the ratio between the worst and best solution (in terms of objective function value), can be up to 13.5.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Bolaji, A.L., Khader, A.T., Al-Betar, M.A., Thomas, J.J.: The effect of neighborhood structures on examination timetabling with artificial bee colony. In: Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling, pp. 29–31 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Ceschia, S., Di Gaspero, L., Schaerf, A.: Design, engineering, and experimental analysis of a simulated annealing approach to the post-enrolment course timetabling problem. Comput. Oper. Res. 39(7), 1615–1624 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Della Croce, F., Salassa, F.: A variable neighborhood search based matheuristic for nurse rostering problems. Ann. Oper. Res. 218(1), 185–199 (2014)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  4. Di Gaspero, L., Schaerf, A., McCollum, B.: The second international timetabling competition (ITC-2007): curriculum-based course timetabling (track 3). Technical report (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Dueck, G.: New optimization heuristics: the great deluge algorithm and the record-to-record travel. J. Comput. Phys. 104(1), 86–92 (1993)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  6. Erben, W., Keppler, J.: A genetic algorithm solving a weekly course-timetabling problem. In: Burke, E., Ross, P. (eds.) PATAT 1995. LNCS, vol. 1153, pp. 198–211. Springer, Heidelberg (1996). doi:10.1007/3-540-61794-9_60

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  7. Kampke, E.H., de Souza Rocha, W., Boeres, M.C.S., Rangel, M.C.: A grasp algorithm with path relinking for the university courses timetabling problem. In: Proceeding Series of the Brazilian Society of Computational and Applied Mathematics, vol. 3(2), pp. 1081–1087 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Kirkpatrick, S.: Optimization by simulated annealing: quantitative studies. J. Stat. Phys. 34(5), 975–986 (1984)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  9. Lewis, R.: A survey of metaheuristic-based techniques for university timetabling problems. OR Spectr. 30(1), 167–190 (2008)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  10. Lü, Z., Hao, J.-K.: Solving the course timetabling problem with a hybrid heuristic algorithm. In: Dochev, D., Pistore, M., Traverso, P. (eds.) AIMSA 2008. LNCS, vol. 5253, pp. 262–273. Springer, Heidelberg (2008). doi:10.1007/978-3-540-85776-1_22

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  11. Lü, Z., Hao, J.K.: Adaptive tabu search for course timetabling. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 200(1), 235–244 (2010)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  12. Lü, Z., Hao, J.K., Glover, F.: Neighborhood analysis: a case study on curriculum-based course timetabling. J. Heuristics 17(2), 97–118 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Müller, T.: ITC 2007 solver description: a hybrid approach. Ann. Oper. Res. 172(1), 429–446 (2009)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  14. Papadimitriou, C.H., Steiglitz, K.: Combinatorial Optimization: Algorithms and Complexity. Courier Corporation, Mineola (1982)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  15. Ribeiro, C.C., Urrutia, S.: Scheduling the Brazilian soccer tournament: solution approach and practice. Interfaces 42(3), 260–272 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Russell, S., Norvig, P.: Artificial intelligence: a modern approach, pp. 111–113. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Santos, H.G., Uchoa, E., Ochi, L.S., Maculan, N.: Strong bounds with cut and column generation for class-teacher timetabling. Ann. Oper. Res. 194(1), 399–412 (2012)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  18. Schaerf, A.: A survey of automated timetabling. Artif. Intell. Rev. 13(2), 87–127 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Teoh, C.K., Abdullah, M.Y.C., Haron, H.: Effect of pre-processors on solution quality of university course timetabling problem. In: Proceedings of the 2015 IEEE Student Conference on Research and Development, pp. 472–477 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Tuga, M., Berretta, R., Mendes, A.: A hybrid simulated annealing with kempe chain neighborhood for the university timetabling problem. In: Proceedings of the 6th IEEE/ACIS International Conference on Computer and Information Science (ICIS 2007), pp. 400–405 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We want to express our thanks to Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq (processes 454569/2014-9 and 301725/2016-0) and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa e Inovação do Espírito Santo - FAPES (processes 67656021/2014, 67627153/2014, 70232628/2015 and 73290475/2015) for financial support.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Edmar Hell Kampke , Erika Almeida Segatto , Maria Claudia Silva Boeres , Maria Cristina Rangel or Geraldo Regis Mauri .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

About this paper

Cite this paper

Kampke, E.H., Segatto, E.A., Boeres, M.C.S., Rangel, M.C., Mauri, G.R. (2017). Neighborhood Analysis on the University Timetabling Problem. In: Gervasi, O., et al. Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2017. ICCSA 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10406. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62398-6_11

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62398-6_11

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-62397-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-62398-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics