CONSTRAINT PROGRAMMING AND UNIVERSITY TIMETABLING

Abstract

The technology of Constraint Programming is rapidly becoming a popular alternative for solving large-scale industry problems. This paper provides an introduction to Constraint Programming and to Constraint Logic Programming (CLP), an enabler of constraint programming. The use of Constraint Logic Programming is demonstrated by describing a system developed for scheduling university timetables. Timetabling problems have a high degree of algorithmic complexity (they are usually NP-Complete), and share features with scheduling problems encountered in industry. The system allows the declaration of both hard requirements, which must always be satisfied, and soft constraints which need not be satisfied, though this would be an advantage.