Post Enrolment Course Timetabling
This formulation of the course timetabling problem is based on real world timetabling instances where the timetable is produced after student enrolment on courses or subjects has taken place.
Although in practice, Universities see this as a 'risky' option as there is little room for error within the timescales for completion of enrolment and production of the final timetable, it is often favoured as a solution construction method.
The reasons for this are related to providing maximum student choice while ensuring resources are used effectively and as efficiently as possible.
As student enrolment is known at the time of solution construction, in many ways, this can be thought of as having many similarities with the examination timetabling problem. It should be noted that there are many differences though in the problem formulation and solution evaluation. These differences should be studied carefully by those competitors who are entering more than one track of the competition.
It should be noted that in many real world situations, the construction of a departmental/Institutional course timetable will actually involve a combination of pre-enrolment and post-enrolment features, as well as iterative negotiations with teaching and administrative staff.
A technical report detailing the content of this track can be downloaded here.
Last Updated: Monday, July 30, 2007 10:49 PM