Novel hybrid PSO algorithms with search optimization strategies for a University Course Timetabling Problem

A multi-dimensional assignment problem in which Students, Faculty and Subjects together as events are scheduled to suitable timeslots and available classrooms, is termed to be University Course Timetabling Problem (UCTP). Previous literature studies reveal that getting the best fitness function value with generating an optimized timetable is not considered to a great extent. This paper proposes a novel method of solving the UCTP through various Hybrid Search Optimization algorithms combined with Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). This approach is implemented for the real time data taken from the Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering of a typical Indian University. Our experimentation clearly confirms by giving promising results that, getting a near or sub optimal solution is highly feasible through various hybrid algorithms.