A hyperheuristic approach to examination timetabling problems: benchmarks and a new problem from practice |
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Authors: | Peter Demeester Burak Bilgin Patrick De Causmaecker Greet Vanden Berghe |
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Affiliation: | (1) Information Technology, KAHO Sint-Lieven, Gebroeders De Smetstraat 1, 9000 Gent, Belgium;(2) Computer Science and Information Technology, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Campus Kortrijk, Etienne Sabbelaan 53, 8500 Kortrijk, Belgium |
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Abstract: | Many researchers studying examination timetabling problems focus on either benchmark problems or problems from practice encountered
in their institutions. Hyperheuristics are proposed as generic optimisation methods which explore the search space of heuristics
rather than direct solutions. In the present study, the performance of tournament-based hyperheuristics for the exam timetabling
problem are investigated. The target instances include both the Toronto and ITC 2007 benchmarks and the examination timetabling
problem at KAHO Sint-Lieven (Ghent, Belgium). The Toronto and ITC 2007 benchmarks are post-enrolment-based examination timetabling
problems, whereas the KAHO Sint-Lieven case is a curriculum-based examination timetabling problem. We drastically improve
the previous (manually created) solution for the KAHO Sint-Lieven problem by generating a timetable that satisfies all the
hard and soft constraints. We also make improvements on the best known results in the examination timetabling literature for
seven out of thirteen instances for the To ronto benchmarks. The results are competitive with those of the finalists of the
examination timetabling track of the International Timetabling Competition. |
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