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Curriculum-based course timetabling with SAT and MaxSAT

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Abstract

This paper describes our work on applying novel techniques based on propositional satisfiability (SAT) solvers and optimizers to the Curriculum-based Course Timetabling problem.

Out of 32 standard benchmark instances derived from the Second International Timetabling Competition held in 2007, our techniques yield the best known solutions for 21 of them (19 of them being optimal), improving the previously best known solutions for 9.

In addition, we obtain 18 new lower bounds for this benchmark set by applying a new full (Weighted) Partial MaxSAT approach of the Curriculum-based Course Timetabling problem.

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Fig. 1
Algorithm 1

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Notes

  1. Note that, by including here only the rooms with sufficient capacity, the Room Capacity constraint would get subsumed. Here we have not done this because later on the constraint will become soft.

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Acknowledgements

We want to thank Carlos Ansótegui for his advise and help providing us access to his PM2 and WPM1 solvers.

Partially supported by Spanish Min. of Educ. and Science through the LogicTools-2 project (TIN2007-68093-C02-01).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, Concepción, Chile

    Roberto Asín Achá

  2. Technical University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain

    Robert Nieuwenhuis

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  1. Roberto Asín Achá
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  2. Robert Nieuwenhuis
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Correspondence to Roberto Asín Achá.

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Asín Achá, R., Nieuwenhuis, R. Curriculum-based course timetabling with SAT and MaxSAT. Ann Oper Res 218, 71–91 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-012-1081-x

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