Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.S. in Engineering Science

Department

Computer and Information Science

First Advisor

Conrad Cunningham

Second Advisor

Conrad Cunningham

Third Advisor

Yixin Chen

Relational Format

dissertation/thesis

Abstract

Creating timetables for institutes which deal with transport, sport, workforce, courses, examination schedules, and healthcare scheduling is a complex problem. It is difficult and time consuming to solve due to many constraints. Depending on whether the constraints are essential or desirable they are categorized as ‘hard’ and ‘soft’, respectively. Two types of timetables, namely, course and examination are designed for academic institutes. A feasible course timetable could be described as a plan for the movement of students and staff from one classroom to another, without conflicts. Being an NP-complete problem, many attempts have been made using varying computational methods to obtain optimal solutions to the timetabling problem. Genetic algorithms, based on Darwin's theory of evolution is one such method. The aim of this study is to optimize a general university course scheduling process based on genetic algorithms using some defined constraints.

Concentration/Emphasis

Emphasis: Computer Science

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