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Setting the research agenda in automated timetabling: the second international timetabling competition

McCollum, Barry; Schaerf, Andrea; Paechter, Ben; McMulan, Paul; Lewis, Rhydian M R; Parkes, Andrew J; Gaspero, Luca Di; Qu, Rong; Burke, Edmund

Authors

Barry McCollum

Andrea Schaerf

Paul McMulan

Rhydian M R Lewis

Andrew J Parkes

Luca Di Gaspero

Rong Qu

Edmund Burke



Abstract

The Second International Timetabling Competition (TTC2007) opened in August 2007. Building on the success of the first competition in 2002, this sequel aimed to further develop research activity in the area of educational timetabling. The broad aim of the competition was to create better understanding between researchers and practitioners by allowing emerging techniques to be developed and tested on real-world models of timetabling problems. To support this, a primary goal was to provide researchers with models of problems faced by practitioners through incorporating a significant number of real-world constraints. Another objective of the competition was to stimulate debate within the widening timetabling research community. The competition was divided into three tracks to reflect the important variations that exist in educational timetabling within higher education. Because these formulations incorporate an increased number of “real-world” issues, it is anticipated that the competition will now set the research agenda within the field. After finishing in January 2008, final results were made available in May 2008. Along with background to the competition, the competition tracks are described here along with a brief overview of the techniques used by the competition winners.

Citation

McCollum, B., Schaerf, A., Paechter, B., McMulan, P., Lewis, R. M. R., Parkes, A. J., …Burke, E. (2010). Setting the research agenda in automated timetabling: the second international timetabling competition. INFORMS Journal on Computing, 22, 120-130. https://doi.org/10.1287/ijoc.1090.0320

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jan 1, 2009
Online Publication Date May 19, 2009
Publication Date 2010
Deposit Date Jan 31, 2011
Print ISSN 1091-9856
Electronic ISSN 1526-5528
Publisher INFORMS
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 22
Pages 120-130
DOI https://doi.org/10.1287/ijoc.1090.0320
Keywords Timetabling; heuristic search; benchmarks; competition;
Public URL http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/id/eprint/3902
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/ijoc.1090.0320