Exploring fruit fly evolutionary algorithm in a university examination timetabling environment

• Main Authors: Abdul Rahman, Syariza, Benjamin, Aida Mauziah, Ramli, Razamin, Ku-Mahamud, Ku Ruhana, Omar, Mohd Faizal
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Academy of Sciences Malaysia 2019
• Subjects: QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
• Online Access: http://repo.uum.edu.my/27856/1/ASM%20S%20J%206%202019%2094%20100.pdf; http://repo.uum.edu.my/27856/; https://www.akademisains.gov.my/asmsj/article/exploring-fruit-fly-evolutionary-algorithm-in-a-university-examination-timetabling-environment/

In this paper, we explore a fruit fly evolutionary algorithm in solving a complex university examination timetabling problem where examinations need to be assigned to limited number of times lots and rooms, subject to a set of student and lecturer related constraints. A new evolutionary algorithm namely the Fruit-Fly Optimization Algorithm (FOA) which is based on the behavior of finding food by the fruit fly is used as solution methodology. It is a method that is still limited in optimization and artificial intelligence area for finding global optimization. We use FOA for solving the problem and introduce new neighborhood structures related with median difficult exams to suit with the problem solving. Experimental results show that FOA with the introduced neighborhood structure can produce high quality solutions within examination timetabling problem. It is concluded that FOA with the introduced neighborhood structure is simple, yet effective in solving a complex examination timetabling problem.