Programming Approach

Constraint programming is a relatively new approach for solving combinatorial optimization prob-lems. This approach is especially effective for large scale scheduling problems with side conditions. University course scheduling problem is one of the hard problems in combinatorial optimization. Furthermore, the specific requirements of each institution make it very difficult to suggest a gener-alized model and a solution algorithm for this problem. The purpose of this study was to design a decision support system for scheduling courses at a university. This system utilizes both constraint programming and mathematical programming techniques. The problem is solved in three stages. The first two stages, in tandem, generate a course schedule using constraint programming; in the last stage, classrooms are assigned to courses based on solution of a binary integer programming model. The proposed system is validated by experimental runs using actual course offerings and classroom data from past semesters