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AviationTest Facilities, Equipment and Methods

University Course Timetabling with Probability Collectives

Authors: Brian M. Autry; NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY CA
Abstract:
The Naval Postgraduate School currently uses a time consuming manual process to generate course schedules for students and professors. Each quarter, the process of timetabling approximately 2000 students into nearly 500 courses takes up to 8 weeks. This thesis introduces an automated timetabling algorithm using Probability Collectives (PC) theory. PC Theory is an agent based approach that utilizes Collective Intelligence (COIN) to solve optimization problems by using a collection of agents attempting to achieve a single goal. The algorithm was tested on a set of data provided by the organizers of the 2007 International Timetabling Competition. The algorithm provided valid timetables for every problem instance and successfully scheduled between 70% and 91.6% of all student course requests.

Limitations: APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE
Description: Master's thesis
Pages: 55
Report Date: MAR 2008
Report Number: A468974
Keywords relating to this report:
*COURSES(EDUCATION)
*COURSES_EDUCATION_
*MULTIAGENT SYSTEMS
*OPTIMIZATION
*SCHEDULING
ALGORITHMS
AUTOMATION
THESES
UNIVERSITIES
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