New "Harder"
Instances for the University Course Timetabling Problem
Lately we have been working with algorithms for the University Course Timetabling
Problem (UCTP) that are specialised just for finding feasible timetables. The
problem is that existing instances are just too easy! We have therefore created
sixty new instances specially made to be "harder" with regards to
finding a feasible timetable. The instance files are in the same *.tim format
used for the International Timetabling
Competition. All instances have at least one feasible solution and were
generated by Rhyd Lewis using an automated instance generator by Ben Paechter.
Download the Instances
- Click here to download the sixty instances
(zip file, approx. 1.5 MB)
- Click here to see the parameters used
to make these instances (seeds not given)
- Click here to see the layout of the instance
files.
Some Results
- Click here to see the full results of experiments
described in 'Rhyd Lewis and Ben Paechter, "Application of the Grouping
Genetic Algorithm to University Course Timetabling." (2005). In
Gottlieb and Raidl (Eds.), Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Evolutionary Computation
in Combinatorial Optimisation (EvoCop 2005), Springer LNCS 3448, Lausanne, Switzerland, March 2005.
- Click here to see a breakdown of some of the
results described in 'Lewis, R., and B. Paechter. (2007) "Finding Feasible Timetables Using Group-Based Operators".
IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, vol. 11(3), pp. 397-413.'
Submitting your own Results
If you have chosen to use these sixty problem instances as benchmarks to
your own algorithm and would like to display your results then please
contact us.
Page last updated: 3 May 2013