Published Paper Details:

Timetabling involves organizing sets of activities to create a schedule that accommodates various constraints. In the context of higher education institutions, a timetable refers to a temporary structure that outlines lecture series and assigns lecture halls or classrooms while ensuring that all relevant constraints are satisfied. Unfortunately, despite the automation of many administrative tasks in higher education, the process of creating lecture timetables has been overlooked due to the complexities involved. Traditionally, preparing such timetables has been a laborious, intricate, and time-consuming process, characterized by weeks of consultations with stakeholders, including students and department staff. It often involves continuous adjustments based on feedback. The need for a solution led to the development of computer-assisted timetable generators, which significantly save time for administrators responsible for course and timetable management. However, not all software solutions on the market can cater to the unique timetabling challenges of every institution. Therefore, there's a need for a practical approach to creating a customizable timetable program suitable for various higher education timetabling problems. To achieve this, the Rapid Application Development (RAD) software development model was employed. The primary goal of this project is to develop a hands-on timetable algorithm capable of addressing both weak and strong constraints within an automated timetable system, ensuring flexibility, adaptability, and the ability to deliver results within a limited timeframe to tackle the challenges associated with higher education timetabling.