Alireza Ariyazand; Hamed Soleimani; Farhad Etebari; Esmaeil Mehdizadeh
Abstract
Scheduling and timetabling for university system have been a source of attention and an important challenge for the people in charge of administrations. The regulations and infrastructures are very diverse between universities, making it impossible to come up with a universal model for all. We, in this ...
Read More
Scheduling and timetabling for university system have been a source of attention and an important challenge for the people in charge of administrations. The regulations and infrastructures are very diverse between universities, making it impossible to come up with a universal model for all. We, in this research, focused on coming up with an algorithm to help with timetabling of class courses for Islamic Azad university of Robat Karim. Our goal was to define an algorithm that could improve teacher satisfaction, and overall efficiency of the university timetabling. Instead, we managed to come up with an efficient algorithm.This research considers different factors such as teacher satisfaction, knowledge and skillset, categorizes students based on undergraduate versus post graduate degree, their research background, their scores and finally student satisfaction as well. This multi-objective mathematic model accounts for all the rules, regulations, and limitations of the university setting while following challenging confinements that guarantee the feasibility of the solution. Using metaheuristic algorithm of Whale and Genetic, while avoiding any breach of the soft limitations, we managed to come up with a system that provides the most satisfaction between the teachers and students. In our research, we compared Whale and Genetic algorithm with 4 other metaheuristic algorithms. We concluded that the results of Whale and Genetic algorithm are superior to other algorithms in regards to: Improved function goals, less run time, more Pareto front averages, more efficient solutions and results.
Alireza Ariyazand; Hamed Soleimani; Farhad Etebari; Esmaeil Mehdizadeh
Abstract
Scheduling is a vital part of daily life that has been the focus of attention since the 1950s. Knowledge of scheduling is a very important and applicable category in industrial engineering and planning of human life. In the field of education, scheduling, and timetabling for best results in classroom ...
Read More
Scheduling is a vital part of daily life that has been the focus of attention since the 1950s. Knowledge of scheduling is a very important and applicable category in industrial engineering and planning of human life. In the field of education, scheduling, and timetabling for best results in classroom teaching is one of the most challenging issues in university programming. As each university has its own rules, policies, resources, and restrictions a unique model of scheduling and timetabling cannot implement. This can cause more complexity and challenging point which needs to be considered scientifically. This study presents a sound scientific model of timetabling and classroom scheduling to improve faculties’ desirability based on days, times, and contents preferences. A sample in Parand branch of Islamic Azad university chooses using the Bat metaheuristic algorithm. By considering the limitations, some unchangeable constraints regarding the specific rules and minimal linear delimitation of the soft constraints of the model, using the appropriate meta-heuristic algorithm to reduce the model run time to a minimum. The results show that the algorithm achieves better results in many test data compared to other algorithms due to meeting many limitations in the problem coding structure. The Bat algorithm is compared with four other algorithms while comparing the results of solving the proposed mathematical model with five metaheuristic algorithms to evaluate the performance. In this research, a multi-objective model is presented to maximize the desirability of professors and to solve the model using Bat, Cuckoo Search, Artificial bee colony, firefly, and Genetic algorithms. In this research 40 different runs of each algorithm were compared, and conclusions were drawn. Modeling has been solved with GAMS and MATLAB software and using the bat meta-heuristic algorithm. It is concluded that in this model, the bat algorithm is the most appropriate algorithm with the shortest time, which has caused the satisfaction of the professors of the educational departments of this academy.