Evolutionary Computation Technical Committee (ECTC)
IEEE Computational Intelligence Society

Chair

Rong Qu, University of Nottingham, UK

Members

James Bean, University of Michigan, USA
Edmund Burke, University of Nottingham, UK
Xiaoqiang Cai, The Chinese University of Hong Kong China
Peter Fleming, University of Sheffield, UK
Jeffrey W. Herrmann, University of Maryland, USA
Raymond Kwan, University of Leeds, UK
Dirk Mattfeld, University of Bremen, Germany
David Montana, BBN Technologies, USA
Bryan Norman, University of Pittsburgh, USA
Kay Chen Tan, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Dario Landa Silva, University of Nottingham, UK
Edward Tsang, University of Essex, UK

Contact person

Rong Qu, Chair of the working group

Overview of the Group

Welcome to the Working Group on Evolutionary Scheduling and Timetabling. The aim of this working group is to serve as a forum for researchers and practitioners for promoting and carrying out research in the area of Evolutionary Scheduling and Timetabling.

Evolutionary Scheduling and Timetabling is an important research area at the interface of Artificial Intelligence and Operational Research. We are interested in both the theoretical and practical aspects related to the application of evolutionary methods to scheduling and timetabling problems.

Evolutionary methods refer to a range of computational approaches that are often inspired by processes that occur in nature. Examples of evolutionary methods are genetic algorithms, genetic programming, ant colony systems, particle swarm optimization, scatter search and path relinking, memetic algorithms, artificial immune systems, evolutionary strategies, cultural algorithms, etc. Evolutionary methods have been applied to a number of problems including optimization, search and design with considerable success. In this working group we are particularly interested in the application of evolutionary methods to tackle all types of scheduling and timetabling problems.

Scheduling and timetabling problems include a wide range of combinatorial optimization and search problems in which the task is to accommodate a set of entities such as events, activities, people and vehicles into a pattern of time-space so that the available resources are utilized as efficiently as possible and the additional constraints are satisfied. Examples of scheduling and timetabling problems are production scheduling, personnel scheduling, educational timetabling, sports timetabling, grid scheduling, transport scheduling, scheduling for the web, project scheduling, etc.

Specific objectives of the Working Group on Evolutionary Scheduling and Timetabling include:

- Facilitate the collaboration between researchers and practitioners in this area by means of meetings and publications in international journals.
- Contribute to the development of original thinking in our research area.
- Exchange experiences and knowledge, promote critical discussion, and facilitate contacts with researchers and practitioners in this research area.

Key Resources

Events

The 2011 IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Scheduling, 11-15 April, 2011, Paris

A stream on "Timetabling and Rostering" at the 24th European Conference in Operational Research (EURO 2010), Lisbon, Portugal, 11-14 July 2010

The 8th International Series of Conferences on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling (PATAT), Belfast, 10-13 August 2010

Special issue of PATAT 2008 at Annals of OR, to appear in 2010

Special issue of MISTA 2009 at Journal of Scheduling, to appear in 2011

A stream on "Timetabling and Rostering" has been organised at the 23rd European Conference in Operational Research (EURO 2009), Bonn, Germany, 5-8 July 2009

Special Issue of Artificial Intelligence Planning and Scheduling at Journal of Scheduling, June 2009

The 2009 IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Scheduling, Nashville, TN, USA, Mar 30 - Apr 2, 2009

The 4th Multidisciplinary International Scheduling Conference: Theory and Applications, Dublin, Ireland, 10th – 12th August 2009

References

Recent papers on educational timetabling

Recent papers on employee timetabling

Evolutionary Computation 1: Basic Algorithms and Operators. Baeck T, Fogel D, Michalewicz Z (eds). Institute of Physics, 2000.

Evolutionary Computation 2: Advanced Algorithms and Operators. Baeck T, Fogel D, Michalewicz Z (eds). Institute of Physics, 2000.

Evolutionary Algorithms for Solving Multi-objective Problems. Coello Coello C A, Van Veldhuizen D A, Lamont G B. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002.

Multi-objective Optimization Using Evolutionary Algorithms. Kalyanmoy D. Wiley, 2001.

Scheduling, Theory, Algorithms, and Systems. Pinedo M. Prentice-hall, 1995.

Handbook of Scheduling: Algorithms, Models, and Performance Analysis. Leung J Y T. Chapman & Hall/CRC, Computer & Information Science Series, 2004.

Multicriteria Scheduling: Theory, Models and Algorithms. T'kindt V, Billaut J-C, Springer, 2002.

Multiobjective Scheduling by Genetic Algorithms. Bagchi T P. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1999.

E. Burke and M. Gendreau (eds). The Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling VII: Selected Papers of the 8th International Conference on Practice & Theory of Automated Timetabling, (PATAT 2008), University of Montreal, Canada, August 18th-22th 2008.

E. Burke and H. Rudova (eds). The Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling VI: Selected Papers of the 6th International Conference on Practice & Theory of Automated Timetabling, (PATAT 2006), Brono, Czech Republic, August 30th- September 1st 2006, Springer LNCS 3867, 2007.

E. Burke and M. Trick (eds). The Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling V: Selected Papers of the 5th International Conference on Practice & Theory of Automated Timetabling, (PATAT 2004), Pittsburgh, PA USA, August 18th-20th 2004, Springer LNCS 3616, 2005.

E. Burke and P. De Causemacker (eds). The Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling IV: Selected Papers of the 4th International Conference on Practice & Theory of Automated Timetabling, (PATAT 2002), Gent, Belgium, August 21st-23rd 2002, Springer LNCS 2740, 2003.

E.K. Burke and Wilhelm Erben (eds). The Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling Volume III: Selected Papers from the 3rd International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling, University of Applied Sciences, Konstanz, Germany, August 16th-18th 2000, Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science Series, vol. 2079, 2001.

E.K. Burke and M. Carter (eds). The Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling Volume II: Selected Papers from the 2nd International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling, University of Toronto, August 20th-22nd 1997, Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science Series, vol. 1408, 1998.

E.K. Burke and P. Ross (eds). The Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling Volume I: Selected Papers from the 1st International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling, Edinburgh August/September 1995, Lecture Notes in Computer Science Vol. 1153, Springer 1996.

E. Burke and G. Kendall (eds). Introductory Tutorials in Optimisation, Decision Support and Search Methodology: to appear, Kluwer, 2004.

G. Kendall, E. Burke and S Petrovic (eds). Multidisciplinary Scheduling: Theory and Applications: Selected papers from the 1st Multidisciplinary International Conference on Scheduling: Theory and Applications (MISTA 2003), Nottingham, UK, to appear, Kluwer, 2003.

E.K.Burke (Editor-in-chief), David Corne (Editor), Michael Pinedo (Editor), Steef van de Velde (Editor). The Journal of Scheduling, Wiley, published bi-monthly from June 1998.

Web Links

Last Update: 8 Feb 2010