A large scale timetabling problem (Q1112719)

This problem has two main components. In the timetabling subproblem a master timetable is derived taking into account student registrations and lecturer and classroom availabilities. The grouping subproblem specifies groups of students for large courses that have to be repeated several times during the week. In this paper we propose an approach to handle both subproblems and to deal with their strong relationship. The solution approach includes several heuristic procedures to handle the subproblems which are formulated as assignment type problems in which entities are assigned to resources by using penalty terms for conflicts and excessive use of classrooms. Finally numerical results are also reported.