Optimization Of University Timetable Scheduling Problem Based On Improved PSO Algorithm

University timetable scheduling is an activity of assigning timeslot and classroom to course that subject to certain constraints.Particle Swarm Optimization(PSO)algorithm alone is inadequate to deal with the constraints of university timetable scheduling.In consequence,an approach that can tackle constraints is needed for optimization.In view of this,university timetable scheduling is modelled as a Constraint Satisfaction Problem(CSP),and a Forward Checking Algorithm(FC)is embedded in a Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm(PSO)in order to explore a better solution improvement.The algorithm applies PSO to generate potential solution for timeslot and classroom for a subject at first,then FC algorithm is executed to verify the validity of the solution.The algorithm was tested with real data extracted from a university.The performance of the algorithm measured in terms of the value of fitness function and the computational cost in seconds is compared with the PSO algorithm and the PSO-LS algorithm.Experimental results reveal that this proposed algorithm outperforms both the PSO algorithm and the PSO-LS algorithm in fitness value.As well as that,PSO-FC is capable of obtaining an optimal solution from among the feasible solutions.It is supposed to achieve tasks as follows:(1)The application of PSO-FC algorithm in solving university timetable scheduling problem is presented and explored.(2)The PSO-FC algorithm for university timetable scheduling problem is modeled and developed.(3)In order to demonstrate the efficiency of the PSO-FC algorithm,contrast experiments have been conducted among three algorithms(PSO,PSO-LS and PSO-FC).