<#255#>PATAT97 paper<#255#> <#259#> Academic Course Scheduling using Simulated Annealing and Rule-Based Expert Systems: a Multi-Phase Approach <#259#> <#261#> Saleh Elmohamed
Geoffrey Fox
Paul Coddington
<#261#> Northeast Parallel Architectures Center
Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY 13244
{saleh, gcf, paulc}@npac.syr.edu

In this study we tackle the complex problem of academic class scheduling (or timetabling) at the university level. We use a multi-phase approach to tackle this problem. In the first (the preprocessing) phase our heuristics consist of a rule-based expert system, and in the second (the processing) phase a simulated annealing algorithm with three different cooling schedules being implemented and compared. This approach enabled us to obtain valid schedules for the timetabling problem for a large university using complex cost functions that includes student preferences. <#267#>Keywords : scheduling, timetabling, optimization, simulated annealing, reheating, cost functions, annealing schedule, phase transition, expert system.<#267#>