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The examination timetabling problem at Universiti Malaysia Pahang: Comparison of a constructive heuristic with an existing software solution

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  • Kahar, M.N.M.
  • Kendall, G.

Abstract

This paper presents a real-world, capacitated examination timetabling problem from Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP), Malaysia. The problem has constraints which have not been modelled before, these being the distance between examination rooms and splitting exams across several rooms. These constraints provide additional challenges in defining a suitable model and in developing a constructive heuristic. One of the contributions of this paper is to formally define this real-world problem. A further contribution is the constructive heuristic that is able to produce good quality solutions for the problem, which are superior to the solutions that are produced using the university's current software. Moreover, our method adheres to all hard constraints which the current systems fails to do.

Suggested Citation

  • Kahar, M.N.M. & Kendall, G., 2010. "The examination timetabling problem at Universiti Malaysia Pahang: Comparison of a constructive heuristic with an existing software solution," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 207(2), pages 557-565, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:207:y:2010:i:2:p:557-565
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. de Werra, D., 1985. "An introduction to timetabling," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 151-162, February.
    2. Burke, Edmund Kieran & Petrovic, Sanja, 2002. "Recent research directions in automated timetabling," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(2), pages 266-280, July.
    3. van den Broek, John & Hurkens, Cor & Woeginger, Gerhard, 2009. "Timetabling problems at the TU Eindhoven," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 196(3), pages 877-885, August.
    4. Barry McCollum & Andrea Schaerf & Ben Paechter & Paul McMullan & Rhyd Lewis & Andrew J. Parkes & Luca Di Gaspero & Rong Qu & Edmund K. Burke, 2010. "Setting the Research Agenda in Automated Timetabling: The Second International Timetabling Competition," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 22(1), pages 120-130, February.
    5. Pillay, N. & Banzhaf, W., 2009. "A study of heuristic combinations for hyper-heuristic systems for the uncapacitated examination timetabling problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 197(2), pages 482-491, September.
    6. Burke, Edmund K. & McCollum, Barry & Meisels, Amnon & Petrovic, Sanja & Qu, Rong, 2007. "A graph-based hyper-heuristic for educational timetabling problems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 176(1), pages 177-192, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Álvaro García-Sánchez & Araceli Hernández & Eduardo Caro & Gonzalo Jiménez, 2019. "Universidad Politécnica de Madrid Uses Integer Programming for Scheduling Weekly Assessment Activities," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 49(2), pages 104-116, March.
    2. Mats Carlsson & Sara Ceschia & Luca Gaspero & Rasmus Ørnstrup Mikkelsen & Andrea Schaerf & Thomas Jacob Riis Stidsen, 2023. "Exact and metaheuristic methods for a real-world examination timetabling problem," Journal of Scheduling, Springer, vol. 26(4), pages 353-367, August.
    3. Oliver Czibula & Hanyu Gu & Aaron Russell & Yakov Zinder, 2017. "A multi-stage IP-based heuristic for class timetabling and trainer rostering," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 252(2), pages 305-333, May.
    4. De Boeck, Liesje & Beliën, Jeroen & Creemers, Stefan, 2016. "A column generation approach for solving the examination-timetabling problemAuthor-Name: Woumans, Gert," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 253(1), pages 178-194.
    5. Saeedeh Bazari & Alireza Pooya & Omid Soleimani Fard & Pardis Roozkhosh, 2023. "Modeling and solving the problem of scheduling university exams in terms of new constraints on the conflicts of professors' exams and the concurrence of exams with common questions," OPSEARCH, Springer;Operational Research Society of India, vol. 60(2), pages 877-915, June.
    6. Alejandro Cataldo & Juan-Carlos Ferrer & Jaime Miranda & Pablo A. Rey & Antoine Sauré, 2017. "An integer programming approach to curriculum-based examination timetabling," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 258(2), pages 369-393, November.
    7. Abdul Rahman, Syariza & Bargiela, Andrzej & Burke, Edmund K. & Özcan, Ender & McCollum, Barry & McMullan, Paul, 2014. "Adaptive linear combination of heuristic orderings in constructing examination timetables," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 232(2), pages 287-297.

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