A non-standard genetic algorithm approach to solve constrained school timetabling problems

In this paper a non-standard constructive evolutionary approach is described to solve efficiently timetabling problems, so necessary at every school and university. The basic scheme of Genetic Algorithms has been used, but some operators have been adapted to the characteristics of the problem under consideration, improving its resolution capability. Although the design requires more effort, it helps to reduce the search space. Feasible timetables have been considered as hard constraints in the problem formulation. It has been proved that modified genetic algorithms can be very useful in this kind of problems for the easiness of including new constrains and the effectiveness of the resolution, exhibiting a good compromise between computational time and optimal reaching.