Generating complete university timetables by combining tabu search with constraint logic

Abstract

Several small data sets representing a few university departments were used with both a constraint logic program and a tabu search program to cast a timetable. The constraint logic program used alone produced timetables rather quickly. The tabu search program used alone ultimately produced better solutions but at a much slower rate. The sequential use of a constraint logic program whose output was used to start the tabu search produced the best timetables of all in a time that was much longer than that of the logic program alone but shorter than that of the tabu search used alone.