Abstract
Course Timetabling is a complex problem and cannot be dealt with using only a few general principles. Each actor (i.e. the administrator, the chairman, the instructor and the student) has his own objective, and these objectives are usually conflicting. The complicated relationships between time periods, classes, classrooms, and instructors make it difficult to attain a feasible solution. In this article, we propose an artificial intelligence approach that integrates expert systems and constraint programming to implement a course timetabling system. Expert systems are utilized to incorporate knowledge into the timetabling system and to provide the reasoning capability for knowledge deduction. The separation of the knowledge base, facts and the inference engine in expert systems provides greater flexibility to support changes. The constraint hierarchy is utilized to capture hard and soft constraints and to reason about constraints using constraint satisfaction and relaxation techniques. Moreover, object-oriented software engineering is applied to improve the development and maintenance of the course timetabling system. A course timetabling system in the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering at National Changhua University of Education (NCUE) is used as an illustrate example for the proposed approach.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Procedings - 18th IEEE International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence, ICTAI 2006 |
| Pages | 389-396 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2006 Dec 1 |
| Event | 18th IEEE International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence, ICTAI 2006 - Arlington, VA, United States Duration: 2006 Oct 13 → 2006 Oct 15 |
Publication series
| Name | Proceedings - International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence, ICTAI |
|---|---|
| ISSN (Print) | 1082-3409 |
Other
| Other | 18th IEEE International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence, ICTAI 2006 |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| City | Arlington, VA |
| Period | 06-10-13 → 06-10-15 |
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All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Engineering(all)
Cite this
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An artificial intelligence approach to course timetabling. / Lai, Lien Fu; Hsueh, Nien Lin; Huang, Liang Tsung; Chen, Tien Chun.
Procedings - 18th IEEE International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence, ICTAI 2006. 2006. p. 389-396 4031923 (Proceedings - International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence, ICTAI).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution
TY - GEN
T1 - An artificial intelligence approach to course timetabling
AU - Lai, Lien Fu
AU - Hsueh, Nien Lin
AU - Huang, Liang Tsung
AU - Chen, Tien Chun
PY - 2006/12/1
Y1 - 2006/12/1
N2 - Course Timetabling is a complex problem and cannot be dealt with using only a few general principles. Each actor (i.e. the administrator, the chairman, the instructor and the student) has his own objective, and these objectives are usually conflicting. The complicated relationships between time periods, classes, classrooms, and instructors make it difficult to attain a feasible solution. In this article, we propose an artificial intelligence approach that integrates expert systems and constraint programming to implement a course timetabling system. Expert systems are utilized to incorporate knowledge into the timetabling system and to provide the reasoning capability for knowledge deduction. The separation of the knowledge base, facts and the inference engine in expert systems provides greater flexibility to support changes. The constraint hierarchy is utilized to capture hard and soft constraints and to reason about constraints using constraint satisfaction and relaxation techniques. Moreover, object-oriented software engineering is applied to improve the development and maintenance of the course timetabling system. A course timetabling system in the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering at National Changhua University of Education (NCUE) is used as an illustrate example for the proposed approach.
AB - Course Timetabling is a complex problem and cannot be dealt with using only a few general principles. Each actor (i.e. the administrator, the chairman, the instructor and the student) has his own objective, and these objectives are usually conflicting. The complicated relationships between time periods, classes, classrooms, and instructors make it difficult to attain a feasible solution. In this article, we propose an artificial intelligence approach that integrates expert systems and constraint programming to implement a course timetabling system. Expert systems are utilized to incorporate knowledge into the timetabling system and to provide the reasoning capability for knowledge deduction. The separation of the knowledge base, facts and the inference engine in expert systems provides greater flexibility to support changes. The constraint hierarchy is utilized to capture hard and soft constraints and to reason about constraints using constraint satisfaction and relaxation techniques. Moreover, object-oriented software engineering is applied to improve the development and maintenance of the course timetabling system. A course timetabling system in the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering at National Changhua University of Education (NCUE) is used as an illustrate example for the proposed approach.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=38949095670&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=38949095670&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/ICTAI.2006.31
DO - 10.1109/ICTAI.2006.31
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:38949095670
SN - 0769527280
SN - 9780769527284
T3 - Proceedings - International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence, ICTAI
SP - 389
EP - 396
BT - Procedings - 18th IEEE International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence, ICTAI 2006
ER -