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Authors
Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
In this work, a decision support system (DSS) has been developed to support the creation of
academic timetables at the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP), addressing the
problem of university course timetabling. The DSS was designed to handle the scheduling of all
years and regimes (day and evening) of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the
Department of Mechanical Engineering.
The motivation behind this project was to automate and optimise the timetabling process, which is
currently done manually at ISEP. This manual process is complex, time consuming and requires
significant effort from the faculty to create schedules based on historical data.
The solution used an integer mathematical programming approach, implemented using the Python
programming language in conjunction with the CPLEX solver and the Pyomo library. The DSS was
designed to integrate real-world data and handle a variety of constraints and preferences from both
faculty and students. It aimed to reduce the time and human resources required to create the
timetable.
The results show that the DSS provides feasible and efficient solutions for timetabling, significantly
improving the resource allocation process and reducing manual effort. The successful
implementation for two specific degrees suggests that the approach can be further developed to
meet the scheduling needs of all degrees at ISEP, ultimately streamlining the scheduling process
and meeting future demands.
Description
Keywords
University course timetabling Integer programming Optimization Python CPLEX