CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

The academic environment has gone so complex that an automated system may be required to automate certain aspects of the academic system. One such area of difficulty is timetable scheduling; those saddled with the responsibility of time table creation are always faced with challenges of creating effective system that will deliver its purpose.

Automation has been seen as a way of enhancing Manual activities. For instance, Manual operations are characterized with some setbacks such as erroneous computation etc. with automation, those setbacks are either eliminated or reduced to barest minimal. To this effect application are being created to hide the manual operations and project automation.

The general task of solving timetable scheduling problems is iterative and time consuming. In real world application, the participants to the timetable scheduling have conflicting preferences which make the search for an optimal solution a problem. In order to solve the problem it is necessary to find a compromise between all the parties involved in the requirement, usually conflicting (e.g. day, time). The constraints are related to the availability, timetabling and preference of each of the instructor, to rooms availability, number of student and curricula. In order to solve this problem for the particular case of university system, timetable scheduling has to adopt the computer-base approach. Computer-base approach enables the institution to automate certain manual task and work efficiently. Also, in the particular case of timetable scheduling, the automated system could find an optimal or a sub-optimal solution using mainly inter agent communication.

1.1 PROBLEM DEFINITION

The scheduling problem can be defined as a problem of finding the optimal sequence for evaluating a finite set of operation (task or job) under a certain set of constrains that must be satisfied . A typical example of scheduling problem is timetable scheduling. The problems to be solved by timetable scheduling are mapped out below.

Maximize individual in timetable scheduling or other resources.

Minimize time required to complete the entire process for timetable scheduling.

Production of timetable and of conflict interest, place, etc.

All these problems and more are to be solved so that the proposal solution for timetable scheduling will be an enchantment over the manual.