A harmony search algorithm for university course timetabling

One of the main challenges for university administration is building a timetable for course sessions. This is not just about building a timetable that works, but building one that is as good as possible. In general, course timetabling is the process of assigning given courses to given rooms and timeslots under specific constraints. Harmony search algorithm is a new metaheuristic population-based algorithm, mimicking the musical improvisation process where a group of musicians play the pitches of their musical instruments together seeking a pleasing harmony. The major thrust of this algorithm lies in its ability to integrate the key components of population-based methods and local search-based methods in a simple optimization model. In this paper, a harmony search and a modified harmony search algorithm are applied to university course timetabling against standard benchmarks. The results show that the proposed methods are capable of providing viable solutions in comparison to previous works.