An informed genetic algorithm for the examination timetabling problem

This paper presents the results of a study conducted to investigate the use of genetic algorithms (GAs) as a means of inducing solutions to the examination timetabling problem (ETP). This study differs from previous efforts applying genetic algorithms to this domain in that firstly it takes a two-phased approach to the problem which focuses on producing timetables that meet the hard constraints during the first phase, while improvements are made to these timetables in the second phase so as to reduce the soft constraint costs. Secondly, domain specific knowledge in the form of heuristics is used to guide the evolutionary process. The system was tested on a set of 13 real-world problems, namely, the Carter benchmarks. The performance of the system on the benchmarks is comparable to that of other evolutionary techniques and in some cases the system was found to outperform these techniques. Furthermore, the quality of the examination timetables evolved is within range of the best results produced in the field. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.