Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Benchmarking curriculum-based course timetabling: formulations, data formats, instances, validation, visualization, and results

  • Published:
Annals of Operations Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

    We’re sorry, something doesn't seem to be working properly.

    Please try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, please contact support so we can address the problem.

Abstract

We propose a set of formulations for the Curriculum-Based Course Timetabling problem, with the aim of “capturing” many real-world formulations, and thus encouraging researchers to “reduce” their specific problems to one of them, gaining the opportunity to compare and assess their results. This work is accompanied by a web application that maintains all the necessary infrastructures for benchmarking: validators, data formats, instances, reference scores, lower bounds, solutions, and visualizers. All instances proposed here are based on real data from various universities and they represent a variety of possible situations.

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

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Avella, P., & Vasil’ev, I. (2005). A computational study of a cutting plane algorithm for university course timetabling. Journal of Scheduling, 8, 497–514.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burke, E., & Newall, J. (1999). A multi-stage evolutionary algorithm for the timetable problem. IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, 3(1), 63–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burke, E., Pepper, P., & Kingston, J. (1997). A standard data format for timetabling instances. In E. Burke, & M. Carter (Eds.), Lecture notes in computer science : Vol. 1408. Proc. of the 2nd int. conf. on the practice and theory of automated timetabling (PATAT-97), selected papers (pp. 213–222). Berlin: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burke, E. K., Mareček, J., Parkes, A. J., & Rudová, H. (2007). On a clique-based integer programming formulation of vertex colouring with applications in course timetabling (Technical Report NOTTCS-TR-2007-10). The University of Nottingham, Nottingham.

  • Burke, E. K., Mareček, J., Parkes, A. J., & Rudová, H. (2008). Penalising patterns in timetables: Novel integer programming formulations. In S. Nickel, & J. Kalcsics (Eds.), Operations Research Proceedings. Operations Research Proceedings 2007. Berlin: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carter, M. W. (2005). Carter’s test data. URL: ftp://ftp.mie.utoronto.ca/pub/carter/testprob/. Viewed: July 7, 2009, Updated: June 7, 2005.

  • Carter, M. W., Laporte, G., & Lee, S. Y. (1996). Examination timetabling: Algorithmic strategies and applications. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 74, 373–383.

    Google Scholar 

  • Casey, S., & Thompson, J. (2003). Grasping the examination scheduling problem. In E. Burke, & P. De Causmaecker (Eds.), Lecture notes in computer science : Vol. 2740. Proc. of the 4th int. conf. on the practice and theory of automated timetabling (PATAT-2002), selected papers (pp. 232–244). Berlin: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Daskalaki, S., Birbas, T., & Housos, E. (2004). An integer programming formulation for a case study in university timetabling. European Journal of Operational Research, 153, 117–135.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Di Gaspero, L., & Schaerf, A. (2001). Tabu search techniques for examination timetabling. In E. Burke, & W. Erben (Eds.), Lecture notes in computer science : Vol. 2079. Proc. of the 3rd int. conf. on the practice and theory of automated timetabling (PATAT-2000), selected papers (pp. 104–117). Berlin: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Di Gaspero, L., & Schaerf, A. (2003). Multi-neighbourhood local search with application to course timetabling. In E. Burke, & P. De Causmaecker (Eds.), Lecture notes in computer science : Vol. 2740. Proc. of the 4th int. conf. on the practice and theory of automated timetabling (PATAT-2002), selected papers (pp. 262–275). Berlin: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Di Gaspero, L., & Schaerf, A. (2006). Neighborhood portfolio approach for local search applied to timetabling problems. Journal of Mathematical Modeling and Algorithms, 5(1), 65–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Di Gaspero, L., McCollum, B., & Schaerf, A. (2007). The second international timetabling competition (ITC-2007): Curriculum-based course timetabling (track 3) (Technical Report QUB/IEEE/Tech/ITC2007/CurriculumCTT/v1.0/1). School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Queens University, Belfast (UK), August 2007. ITC-2007 site: http://www.cs.qub.ac.uk/itc2007/.

  • Johnson, D. S. (2002). A theoretician’s guide to the experimental analysis of algorithms. In M. H. Goldwasser, D. S. Johnson, & C. C. McGeoch (Eds.), Data structures, near neighbor searches, and methodology: fifth and sixth DIMACS implementation challenges (pp. 215–250). Providence: Am. Math. Soc.. Available from http://www.research.att.com/~dsj/papers.html.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kingston, J. H. (2001). Modelling timetabling problems with STTL. In E. Burke, & W. Erben (Eds.), Lecture notes in computer science : Vol. 2079. Proc. of the 3rd int. conf. on the practice and theory of automated timetabling (PATAT-2000), selected papers (pp. 309–321). Berlin: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • McCollum, B. (2007). A perspective on bridging the gap in university timetabling. In E. Burke, & H. Rudová (Eds.), Lecture notes in computer science : Vol. 3867. Proc. of the 6th int. conf. on the practice and theory of automated timetabling (PATAT-2006), selected papers (pp. 3–23). Berlin: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • McCollum, B., McMullan, P., Burke, E. K., Parkes, A. J., & Qu, R. (2007). The second international timetabling competition: Examination timetabling track (Technical Report QUB/IEEE/Tech/ITC2007/Exam/v4.0/17). Queens University, Belfast (UK), September 2007.

  • McCollum, B., Schaerf, A., Paechter, B., McMullan, P., Lewis, R., Parkes, A. J., Di Gaspero, L., Qu, R., & Burke, E. K. (2010). Setting the research agenda in automated timetabling: The second international timetabling competition. INFORMS Journal on Computing, 22(1)

  • Merlot, L. (2005). Public exam timetabling data sets. URL: http://www.or.ms.unimelb.edu.au/timetabling. Viewed: July 7, 2009, Updated: October 13, 2003.

  • Müller, T., & Murray, K. (2008). University course timetabling & student scheduling. URL: http://www.unitime.org. Viewed: July 7, 2009, Updated: August 8, 2008.

  • Murray, K. S., Müller, T., & Rudová, H. (2007). Modeling and solution of a complex university course timetabling problem. In Proc. of the 6th int. conf. on the practice and theory of automated timetabling (PATAT-2006), selected papers, pp. 189–209.

  • Nurmi, K., & Kyngäs, J. (2008). A conversion scheme for turning curriculum-based timetabling problem into school timetabling problem. In E. Burke & M. Gendreau (Eds.), Proc. of the 7th int. conf. on the practice and theory of automated timetabling (PATAT-2008).

  • Özcan, E. (2005). Towards an XML-based standard for timetabling problems: TTML. In G. Kendall, E. Burke, S. Petrovic, & M. Gendreau (Eds.), Proc. of the 1st multidisciplinary international conference on scheduling: theory and applications (MISTA-03), selected papers (pp. 163–185). Berlin: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Qu, R. (2006). The exam timetabling site. URL: http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~rxq/ETTP.htm. Viewed: March 13, 2007, Updated: July 8, 2006.

  • Qu, R., Burke, E., McCollum, B., Merlot, L., & Lee, S. Y. (2009). A survey of search methodologies and automated system development for examination timetabling. Journal of Scheduling, 12(1), 55–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schaerf, A. (1999). A survey of automated timetabling. Artificial Intelligence Review, 13(2), 87–127.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schaerf, A., & Di Gaspero, L. (2007). Measurability and reproducibility in timetabling research: Discussion and proposals. In E. Burke, & H. Rudová (Eds.), Lecture notes in computer science : Vol. 3867. Proc. of the 6th int. conf. on the practice and theory of automated timetabling (PATAT-2006), selected papers (pp. 40–49). Berlin: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. DIEGM, University of Udine, via delle Scienze 208, 33100, Udine, Italy

    Alex Bonutti, Luca Di Gaspero & Andrea Schaerf

  2. EasyStaff S.r.l., via Oderzo 1, 33100, Udine, Italy

    Fabio De Cesco

Authors
  1. Alex Bonutti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Fabio De Cesco
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Luca Di Gaspero
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Andrea Schaerf
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrea Schaerf.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bonutti, A., De Cesco, F., Di Gaspero, L. et al. Benchmarking curriculum-based course timetabling: formulations, data formats, instances, validation, visualization, and results. Ann Oper Res 194, 59–70 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-010-0707-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-010-0707-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation