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Timetabling Using the Annealing Algorithm

The mapping of timetabling problem into the SA algorithm involves the following constructs:

  1. a state (or configuration) is a timetable with the following sets of variables:
  2. a cost (or energy) function E(P,C,S,R,I), as outlined in Section 2.1.3.
  3. a move is the assignment of a class to a time period and a room, or swapping two classes tex2html_wrap_inline2339 and tex2html_wrap_inline2341 , by exchanging their time periods tex2html_wrap_inline2343 and tex2html_wrap_inline2345 and/or classrooms tex2html_wrap_inline2347 and tex2html_wrap_inline2349 .

Along with all of the necessary constraints and the output of the rule-based preprocessor, the simulated annealing algorithm also takes as input data the following: a list of classes that have not been already scheduled by the preprocessor and their associated professors and room types, a list of rooms provided by the registrar's office, a department to building distance matrix, a list of students and their class preferences, and a list of classes that are not allowed to be scheduled simultaneously.

 


Saleh Elmohamed
Thu Sep 4 11:43:55 EDT 1997