Title: Lecture timetabling at a Tunisian university

Authors: Abdelaziz Dammak, Abdelkarim Elloumi, Hichem Kamoun

Addresses: Department of Applied Quantitative Methods, GIAD Laboratory, University of Sfax, FSEG, Route de l'Aerodrome, km 4, BP 1088, 3018 Sfax, Tunisia. ' Department of Applied Quantitative Methods, GIAD Laboratory, University of Sfax, FSEG, Route de l'Aerodrome, km 4, BP 1088, 3018 Sfax, Tunisia. ' Department of Applied Quantitative Methods, GIAD Laboratory, University of Sfax, FSEG, Route de l'Aerodrome, km 4, BP 1088, 3018 Sfax, Tunisia

Abstract: This paper deals with the lecture timetabling problem at an institution in a Tunisian university. The objective is to construct a feasible timetable for all the lectures taken by the students sections in the institution. For this, we give a formulation of the problem as a set of linear constraints. Then we develop a heuristic procedure that starts by assigning student sections having the biggest size to classrooms with the smallest capacity that can fit the students. This heuristic is illustrated with real data of one section at the Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences of Sfax (FEMSS) in Tunisia. In addition, it is fully implemented to solve the lecture timetabling problem for all the students sections in the same faculty.

Keywords: educational timetabling; integer programming; heuristic procedures; Tunisia; lecture timetabling; university lectures.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOR.2009.023287

International Journal of Operational Research, 2009 Vol.4 No.3, pp.323 - 345

Published online: 17 Feb 2009 *

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