The Development of Timetabling System Using Constraint Satisfaction Programming

• Main Authors: Chieh-Jung Yeh, 葉杰榮
• Other Authors: Li-Yen Hsue
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2002
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/89326291752260315097

碩士 === 國立高雄第一科技大學 === 資訊管理系 === 90 === The timetabling problem is generally considered as a resources allocation problem in OR, where resources of teachers, students, classrooms, and courses are to be allocated into timeslots of a weekly timetable to achieve an objective function; while subject to constraints among resources. The objective function is to offer a course schedule that can satisfy the needs of students in taking both required and elective courses, fulfill the teaching responsibility of teachers, and, at the same time, minimize slack timeslots within a timetable or maximize the freedom of course selection. The heart of the problem is the constraints that exist as regulations, within each resource, and between resources; and have exhibited the unwelcome nature of combinatorial problems. While there have been many optimization solution approaches suggested in the past, the increasing need to offer a working environment with humanity has forced the management to take into consideration many additional soft constraints. With the understanding that it is impossible to satisfy all personal needs of teaching staff, one needs to look for new solution approaches that can satisfy all hard constraints and as many soft constraints as possible. This study focuses on the application of Constraint Satisfaction Programming to develop a class timetable, which consists of hard constraints that must be satisfied to produce a feasible solution, and soft constraints that represent the ideal cognitive model of teaching staff. The actual course scheduling needs of the Department of Information Management of National Kaoshuing First University of Science and Technology is used for this study.