An evolutionary non-Linear great deluge approach for solving course timetabling problems

The aim of this paper is to extend our non-linear great deluge algorithm into an evolutionary approach by incorporating a population and a mutation operator to solve the university course timetabling problems. This approach might be seen as a variation of memetic algorithms. The popularity of evolut...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Obit, Joe Henry, Ouelhadj, Djamila, Landa-Silva, Dario, Alfred, Rayner
Format: Article
Published: IJCSI Press 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32127/
_version_ 1848794339781640192
author Obit, Joe Henry
Ouelhadj, Djamila
Landa-Silva, Dario
Alfred, Rayner
author_facet Obit, Joe Henry
Ouelhadj, Djamila
Landa-Silva, Dario
Alfred, Rayner
author_sort Obit, Joe Henry
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description The aim of this paper is to extend our non-linear great deluge algorithm into an evolutionary approach by incorporating a population and a mutation operator to solve the university course timetabling problems. This approach might be seen as a variation of memetic algorithms. The popularity of evolutionary computation approaches has increased and become an important technique in solving complex combinatorial optimisation problems. The proposed approach is an extension of a non-linear great deluge algorithm in which evolutionary operators are incorporated. First, we generate a population of feasible solutions using a tailored process that incorporates heuristics for graph colouring and assignment problems. The initialisation process is capable of producing feasible solutions even for large and most constrained problem instances. Then, the population of feasible timetables is subject to a steady-state evolutionary process that combines mutation and stochastic local search. We conducted experiments to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm and in particular, the contribution of the evolutionary operators. The results showed the effectiveness of the hybridisation between non-linear great deluge and evolutionary operators in solving university course timetabling problems.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T19:14:38Z
format Article
id nottingham-32127
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T19:14:38Z
publishDate 2012
publisher IJCSI Press
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-321272020-05-04T20:21:34Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32127/ An evolutionary non-Linear great deluge approach for solving course timetabling problems Obit, Joe Henry Ouelhadj, Djamila Landa-Silva, Dario Alfred, Rayner The aim of this paper is to extend our non-linear great deluge algorithm into an evolutionary approach by incorporating a population and a mutation operator to solve the university course timetabling problems. This approach might be seen as a variation of memetic algorithms. The popularity of evolutionary computation approaches has increased and become an important technique in solving complex combinatorial optimisation problems. The proposed approach is an extension of a non-linear great deluge algorithm in which evolutionary operators are incorporated. First, we generate a population of feasible solutions using a tailored process that incorporates heuristics for graph colouring and assignment problems. The initialisation process is capable of producing feasible solutions even for large and most constrained problem instances. Then, the population of feasible timetables is subject to a steady-state evolutionary process that combines mutation and stochastic local search. We conducted experiments to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm and in particular, the contribution of the evolutionary operators. The results showed the effectiveness of the hybridisation between non-linear great deluge and evolutionary operators in solving university course timetabling problems. IJCSI Press 2012-07 Article PeerReviewed Obit, Joe Henry, Ouelhadj, Djamila, Landa-Silva, Dario and Alfred, Rayner (2012) An evolutionary non-Linear great deluge approach for solving course timetabling problems. International Journal of Computer Science Issues, 9 (4). pp. 1-13. ISSN 1694-0814 Great deluge Evolutionary algorithms Hybrid metaheuristics Scheduling and timetabling http://www.ijcsi.org/articles/An-evolutionary-nonlinear-great-deluge-approach-for-solving-course-timetabling-problems.php
spellingShingle Great deluge
Evolutionary algorithms
Hybrid metaheuristics
Scheduling and timetabling
Obit, Joe Henry
Ouelhadj, Djamila
Landa-Silva, Dario
Alfred, Rayner
An evolutionary non-Linear great deluge approach for solving course timetabling problems
title An evolutionary non-Linear great deluge approach for solving course timetabling problems
title_full An evolutionary non-Linear great deluge approach for solving course timetabling problems
title_fullStr An evolutionary non-Linear great deluge approach for solving course timetabling problems
title_full_unstemmed An evolutionary non-Linear great deluge approach for solving course timetabling problems
title_short An evolutionary non-Linear great deluge approach for solving course timetabling problems
title_sort evolutionary non-linear great deluge approach for solving course timetabling problems
topic Great deluge
Evolutionary algorithms
Hybrid metaheuristics
Scheduling and timetabling
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32127/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32127/