Title: Examination and class timetabling problem: a case study of an Indian university

Authors: Anil Kumar Agrawal; Susheel Yadav; Amit Ambar Gupta; Shubhendu Pandey

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, India ' Jindal Global Business School, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, 131001, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, India; Department of Operations, GSB Bangalore, GITAM University, Bangalore, 561203, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, India

Abstract: Timetabling problem is basically an optimisation problem and is a subset of scheduling problems. A timetabling problem is a problem where events (classes, examination and student) have to be ordered in time slots while satisfying some basic constraints. Here the basic aim is to satisfy various constraints, such as, no student can be scheduled for more than one course at the same time and the maximum number of students that can be scheduled to any particular class must not exceed the sitting capacity of the class. So, the timetabling problem is basically arranging the given set of values (class, subject and students) in such a manner such that the resulting schedule should fulfil all the above stated hard constraints and try to give more close values near to the soft constraints (such as proper distribution of classes over available slots). In the present work, examination timetable and class timetable problems have been considered with several practical features. The problems are formulated as mathematical models and heuristic approach is also proposed to solve them. The heuristic uses the basic framework of genetic algorithm.

Keywords: timetabling; soft constraints; heuristics; genetic algorithm; mathematical modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOR.2024.139234

International Journal of Operational Research, 2024 Vol.50 No.3, pp.291 - 315

Received: 06 Jun 2021
Accepted: 13 Nov 2021
Published online: 28 Jun 2024 *

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