Title: Course scheduling problem with cohort group and room considerations

Authors: Lijian Xiao; Pratik J. Parikh; Xinhui Zhang

Addresses: Department of Biomedical, Industrial and Human Factors Engineering, Wright State University, 207 Russ Engineering Center, 3640 Colonel Glenn Highway, Dayton, OH 45435, USA ' Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Louisville, 304 JB Speed Building, 132 Eastern Parkway, Louisville, KY 40292, USA ' Department of Biomedical, Industrial and Human Factors Engineering, Wright State University, 207 Russ Engineering Center, 3640 Colonel Glenn Highway, Dayton, OH 45435, USA

Abstract: We consider a variation to the course scheduling problem (CSP), referred to as the course scheduling problem with cohort group and room considerations (CSP-CgR), that incorporates two considerations: cohort group-to-room and topic-to-room assignments. While the former refers to students in each group (within a cohort) staying in the same room for most of the week to reduce student travel distances, the latter ensures that topics will be assigned to preferred rooms. We first propose a mixed integer optimisation model and then develop a nested simulated annealing (SA) based algorithm to solve real-world instances. The algorithm utilises several neighbourhood operators and contains enhancements such as probability selection and candidate listing to guide the search process. Testing this algorithm on small and large problems instances (up to 450 students, ten cohorts, 16 groups and ten rooms) suggest that high quality solutions can be obtained in under four hours.

Keywords: course scheduling; simulated annealing; multi-objective optimisation; room planning.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISE.2023.135776

International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 2023 Vol.45 No.4, pp.458 - 483

Received: 22 Feb 2022
Accepted: 26 Feb 2022
Published online: 05 Jan 2024 *

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