Hybridising heuristics within an estimation distribution algorithm for examination timetabling

This paper presents a hybrid hyper-heuristic approach based on estimation distribution algorithms. The main motivation is to raise the level of generality for search methodologies. The objective of the hyper-heuristic is to produce solutions of acceptable quality for a number of optimisation problem...

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Main Authors: Qu, Rong, Pham, Duc Nam Trung, Bai, Ruibin, Kendall, Graham
Format: Article
Published: Springer 2015
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28270/
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author Qu, Rong
Pham, Duc Nam Trung
Bai, Ruibin
Kendall, Graham
author_facet Qu, Rong
Pham, Duc Nam Trung
Bai, Ruibin
Kendall, Graham
author_sort Qu, Rong
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description This paper presents a hybrid hyper-heuristic approach based on estimation distribution algorithms. The main motivation is to raise the level of generality for search methodologies. The objective of the hyper-heuristic is to produce solutions of acceptable quality for a number of optimisation problems. In this work, we demonstrate the generality through experimental results for different variants of exam timetabling problems. The hyper-heuristic represents an automated constructive method that searches for heuristic choices from a given set of low-level heuristics based only on non-domain-specific knowledge. The high-level search methodology is based on a simple estimation distribution algorithm. It is capable of guiding the search to select appropriate heuristics in different problem solving situations. The probability distribution of low-level heuristics at different stages of solution construction can be used to measure their effectiveness and possibly help to facilitate more intelligent hyper-heuristic search methods.
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spelling nottingham-282702025-09-09T14:36:08Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28270/ Hybridising heuristics within an estimation distribution algorithm for examination timetabling Qu, Rong Pham, Duc Nam Trung Bai, Ruibin Kendall, Graham This paper presents a hybrid hyper-heuristic approach based on estimation distribution algorithms. The main motivation is to raise the level of generality for search methodologies. The objective of the hyper-heuristic is to produce solutions of acceptable quality for a number of optimisation problems. In this work, we demonstrate the generality through experimental results for different variants of exam timetabling problems. The hyper-heuristic represents an automated constructive method that searches for heuristic choices from a given set of low-level heuristics based only on non-domain-specific knowledge. The high-level search methodology is based on a simple estimation distribution algorithm. It is capable of guiding the search to select appropriate heuristics in different problem solving situations. The probability distribution of low-level heuristics at different stages of solution construction can be used to measure their effectiveness and possibly help to facilitate more intelligent hyper-heuristic search methods. Springer 2015-06-30 Article PeerReviewed Qu, Rong, Pham, Duc Nam Trung, Bai, Ruibin and Kendall, Graham (2015) Hybridising heuristics within an estimation distribution algorithm for examination timetabling. Applied Intelligence . ISSN 0924-669X (In Press) http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10489-014-0615-0 doi:10.1007/s10489-014-0615-0 doi:10.1007/s10489-014-0615-0
spellingShingle Qu, Rong
Pham, Duc Nam Trung
Bai, Ruibin
Kendall, Graham
Hybridising heuristics within an estimation distribution algorithm for examination timetabling
title Hybridising heuristics within an estimation distribution algorithm for examination timetabling
title_full Hybridising heuristics within an estimation distribution algorithm for examination timetabling
title_fullStr Hybridising heuristics within an estimation distribution algorithm for examination timetabling
title_full_unstemmed Hybridising heuristics within an estimation distribution algorithm for examination timetabling
title_short Hybridising heuristics within an estimation distribution algorithm for examination timetabling
title_sort hybridising heuristics within an estimation distribution algorithm for examination timetabling
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28270/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28270/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28270/