AUTOMATED TIMETABLE GENERATOR USING PARTICLE SWARM OPTIMIZATION

Abstract

The timetabling problem at universities is an NP - hard problem un der multiple constraints and limited resources. Thus a technique that can handle constraints is needed to optimize the problem. Thi s pape r focuses on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) for findin g optimal solution s t o th e proble m of course Timetabling a t a Punjabi U niversity Patiala . PSO is a promising scheme for solving NP - hard problems due to its fast convergence and fewer parameter settings . There are tw o objective s i n this . First provide a detaile d introductio n t o the topic of timetabling, Particle Swa rm Optimization thei r metho d an d thei r variations . Th e se c ond objective i s t o appl y the m t o th e proble m o f Course Timetabling . The proposed algorithm is tested using the timetabling data from Department of Computer Science, Punjabi University , Patiala.