 |
EWG WATT Working group on automated time tabling
Last update: 2010-07-06
Update
information
(Restricted access)
WATT Web pages are maintained on regular basis, see http://www.asap.cs.nott.ac.uk/watt/index.html .
They include news about the forthcoming and past workshops and conferences of the group, the archive of the WATT digest that contains all the news sent to the members of the group, resources such as bibliography, useful links, software, etc. In addition, the group maintains benchmark datasets for university timetabling that have been traditionally used by the community, and has recently established, for the first time, the benchmark datasets for nurse rostering, based on real-world data.
| Web site: |
|
|---|
| Coordinator: |
Professor Sanja Petrovic |
|---|
|
University of Nottingham
School of Computer Science
Automated Scheduling, Optimisation and Planning Research Group
Jubilee Campus
Nottingham, NG8 2BB
United Kingdom |
|
|
| Coordinator: |
Prof Jan A.M. Schreuder |
|---|
|
University of Twente
Postbus 217
7500 AE Enschede
The Netherlands |
|
|
| Board: |
Edmund Burke
School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham,
Jubilee Campus, Nottingham NG8 2BB, UK
Email: ekb@cs.nott.ac.uk
Greet Vanden Berghe
Information Technology, Engineering Department, KaHo St.-Lieven
Gebr. Desmetstraat 1, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Sophia Daskalaki
Engineering Sciences, University of Patras, Rio Patras, GR-26500, Greece
Email: sdask@upatras.gr |
|---|
| Newsletter: |
WATT Digests are produced approximately at quarterly intervals and are sent out to the members of WATT and archived on the WATT Web page. |
|---|
| |
|
| Members: |
351 |
|---|
Purpose and history
Computers have been used to aid the construction of timetables since the late fifties. The first generation of computer-based systems were no more than book-keeping programs that would store all the data and occasionally allow some manipulation. In the mid-sixties, computer programs that actually carried out the scheduling process were first developed. Since then there has been a consistent flow of research papers concerned with this problem.
In recent years, the interest in automated timetabling has increased to a large extent. Recent papers are covering practical issues as well as the application of many advanced algorithmic techniques such as constraint logic programming, evolutionary computation, graph colouring, simulated annealing, tabu search, and others.
Many of the papers on automated timetabling deal with the scheduling of lecture courses or exams in educational institutions (i.e. the problem is to automatically generate a plan which indicates meetings between students, teachers and subjects at times and places). This is one of the main interests of the working group. However, there is also a high level of interest in other timetabling problems such as the timetabling of sports fixtures, railway timetabling and employee timetabling.
The objectives of the group are:
- organising workshops/conferences;
- publishing articles and books;
- establishing a network for exchange of information/students/staff;
- developing benchmarks;
- organising timetabling internet resources containing literature, software packages, and test-data from various different institutions.
Past activities
- The 9th WATT workshop was held at the EURO XXIII conference, in Bonn, Germany, July 5-8, 2009.
- The 7th international conference on the Theory and Practice of Automated Timetabling (PATAT 2008) was held in Montreal, Canada, 19-22 August, 2008. For more details about this conference see PATAT 2008
- WATT sponsored the 2nd International Competition on University Timetabling ITC2007.
- The 8th WATT workshop was be held at the EURO XXII conference, in Prague, Czech Republic, July 8-11, 2007.
- The 6th international conference on the Theory and Practice of Automated Timetabling (PATAT 2006) was held in Brno, Czech Republic, August 30 -September 1, 2006. For more details about this conference see PATAT 2006
- The 7th WATT Workshop was held at the IFORS 2005, Hawaii, USA, July 2005. For a list of presentations and abstracts see WATT7
- The 6th WATT Workshop was held at the EURO XX conference, Rodhes, Greece, July 2004. For a list of presentations and abstracts see WATT6
- The 5th WATT Workshop was held at the EURO XIX conference, Istanbul, Turkey, July 2003. For more details about this (and all our past workshops) workshop, see
http://www.asap.cs.nott.ac.uk/ASAP/watt/events/events.html
- The 4th international conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling (PATAT 2002) was held in Ghent, Belgium on 21-23 August 2002. For more details about this (and all the PATAT conferences), see
http://www.asap.cs.nott.ac.uk/patat/patat-index.shtml.
- Running an e-mail list for all group members.
- Organisation of a timetabling resources page on the world wide web. See
http://www.asap.cs.nott.ac.uk/ASAP/watt/resources/resources.html
- Maintaining the group's web pages. See
http://www.asap.cs.nott.ac.uk/watt/
- Organising the e-mail digest. To access the archive see http://www.asap.cs.nott.ac.uk/watt/digests/digests.html.
Future activities
- The 8th international conference on the Theory and Practice of Automated Timetabling (PATAT 2010) will be held in Belfast, Northern Ireland, 10-13 August, 2010. For more details about this conference see PATAT 2010
- The 10th WATT workshop will be held at the EURO XXIV conference, in Lisbon, Portugal, July 11-14, 2010.
Publications
The list of publications relevant for the group is maintained on the Web page, see
Publications
- Edmund Burke and Hana Rudova (editors) The Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling VI: Selected Papers from the 6the International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling, Brno, Czech Republic, August 30 -September 1, 2006, Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science Series. Forthcoming.
- Volume of the Annals of Operations Research on Personnel Scheduling and Planning, Sanja Petrovic and Greet Vanden Berghe (guest editors), Vol. 155, No.1, 2007.
- Feature Issue of the European Journal of Operational Research on Timetabling and Rostering, Edmund Burke and Sanja Petrovic (guest editors) Volume 153, Number 1, Feb 2004.
- Edmund Burke and Michael Trick (editors)The Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling V: Selected Papers from the 5th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling, Pittsburgh, USA, August 18th-20th 2004, Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science Vol 3616, 2005.
- Edmund Burke and Patrick DeCausmaecker (editors), The Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling IV: Selected Revised Papers from the 4th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling, Ghent, Belgium, August 21st-23rd 2002, Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science Series Volume 2740, 2003.
- Edmund Burke and Wilhelm Erben (editors), The Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling III: Selected Papers the 3rd International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling, Konstanz, Germany, August 16th-18th 2000, Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science Series 2001, Volume 2079.
- Edmund Burke and Mike Carter (editors), The Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling 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, Volume 1408, 1998.
- Edmund Burke and Peter Ross (editors), The Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling: Selected Papers from the 1st International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling, Edinburgh August/September 1995, Lecture Notes in Computer Science Volume 1153, Springer 1996.
|
|
