International Journal of Research e-ISSN: 2348-6848

p-ISSN: 2348-795X
Volume 07 Issue 05
May 2020

Automatic Timetable Generator

1
Mr. Vadipina Amarnadh, 2B. Hemanthi, 3G. Sravanthi, 4S. Sai Sanketh
1
Assistant Professor, 2,3,4B.Tech Student
1,2,3,4
Department of CSE
1,2,3,4
Anurag Group of Institutions, Venkatapur, Ghatkesar, Hyderabad, Telangana 500038
Email: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract - The manual system of preparing time table in colleges with large number of students is very time consuming and
usually ends up with various classes clashing either at same room or with same teachers having more than one class at a time.
Due to all the manual maintenance, there are number of difficulties and drawbacks that exist in this system. The Organization
is not able to achieve its need in time and the results too may not be accurate. These are just due to common human errors
which are very difficult to prevent in processes such as these. To overcome all these problems we propose to make an
automated system. The Automatic Timetable Generator system will take various inputs like details of faculty, students,
subjects and depending upon these inputs it will generate a possible time table, making optimal utilization of all resources in a
way that will best suit the specified constraints or college rules. Automatic Timetable Generator system is an automated
system which generates time table according to the data given by the user. The main requirement of the application is to
provide the details about the branch, semester, subjects, labs and total no. of periods. List of subjects may include electives as
well as core subjects. Students need to elect their electives if any. Then the application generates the time table according to
your need.

Index Terms – Timetable, Constraints, Timeslots.

I. INTRODUCTION

Technology makes lifestyle easier by providing better support to different systems, better accuracy, better security options, easier
maintenance, etc. Now a day‟s technology eventually means “computers” which is the greatest achievements of last century. Day by
day computers are being more and more popular because of its features like ease of work, ease of learning, greater accuracy with the
least time consumption and the last but not the least i.e. ease of maintenance with cost effectiveness. So as a part of these ongoing
evolutionary approach traditional systems are being computerized to make them more fruitful than ever.

Timetable is a very important part of the college management system. It helps the college management to maintain the discipline in the
college premises. Timetabling concerns all activities with regard to producing a schedule that must be subjective to different constraints.
A key factor in running an educational center or basically an academic environment is the need for a well-planned and clash-free
timetable. Back in the days when technology was not in wide use, timetables were manually created by the academic institution. Every
institution is faced with the tedious task of drawing up academic timetables. Therefore there is a great requirement for an application
distributing the course evenly and without collisions. Our aim here is to develop a simple, easily understandable, efficient and portable
application, which could automatically generate good quality timetables within seconds.

II. LITERATURE SURVEY

1. Automated timetable generation using multiple context reasoning for university models.
Author: Dipti Srinivasan, Tian Hou Seow, Jian Xin Xu
“Dipti Srinivasan, Tian Hou Seow and Jian Xin Xu” proposed that finding a feasible lecture/tutorial timetable in a large university
department is a challenging problem faced continually in educational establishments. This paper presents an evolutionary algorithm
(EA) based approach to solve a heavily constrained university timetabling problem. The approach uses a problem specific
chromosome representation. Heuristics and context-based reasoning have been used for obtaining feasible timetables in a reasonable
computing time. An intelligent adaptive mutation scheme has been employed for speeding up the convergence. But this system is
difficult to implement since it considers entire university problem and evolutionary algorithm.

2. University Time Table Scheduling using Genetic Artificial Immune Network.

Author: Antariksha Bhaduri

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Antariksha Bhaduri in their article proposed that Scheduling is one of the important tasks encountered in real life situations. Various
scheduling problems are present, like personnel scheduling, production scheduling, education time table scheduling etc. Educational
time table scheduling is a difficult task because of the many constraints that are needed to be satisfied in order to get a feasible
solution. Education time table scheduling problem is known to be NP Hard. Hence, evolutionary techniques have been used to solve
the time table scheduling problem. Methodologies like Genetic Algorithms (GAs), Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) etc. have been
used with mixed success. In this paper, we have reviewed the problem of educational time table scheduling and solving it with
Genetic Algorithm. We have further solved the problem with a mimetic hybrid algorithm, Genetic Artificial Immune Network
(GAIN) and compare the result with that obtained from GA. Results show that GAIN is able to reach the optimal feasible solution
faster than that of GA.

3. A mimetic algorithm for university course timetabling problem.

Author: Sadaf N. Jat, Shengxiang Yang
“Shengxiang Yang, Member, IEEE, and Sadaf Naseem Jat” proposed that The university course timetabling problem (UCTP) is a
combinatorial optimization problem, in which a set of events has to be scheduled into time slots and located into suitable rooms. The
design of course timetables for academic institutions is a very difficult task because it is an NP-hard problem. This paper investigates
genetic algorithms (GAs) with a guided search strategy and local search (LS) techniques for the UCTP. The guided search strategy
which is used here is to create offspring into the population based on a data structure that stores information extracted from good
individuals of previous generations. The LS techniques use their exploitive search ability to improve the search efficiency of the
proposed GAs and the quality of individuals. The proposed GAs is tested on two sets of benchmark problems in comparison with a
set of state-of the- art methods from the literature. The experimental results show that the proposed GAs is able to produce promising
results for the UCTP

Oxford dictionary defined timetables as;

 A plan of times at which events are scheduled to take place, especially towards a particular end.
 A chat showing how the weekly time of a school or college is allotted to classes.

Wikipedia also gave a definition as;

A school timetable is a table for coordinating these four elements:
 Teachers
 Students
 Subjects
 Time slots or Periods

III. EXISTING SYSTEM

In the existing system, each task is carried out manually and processing is a very tedious job. The Organization is not able to achieve its
need in time and the results too may not be accurate. Due to all the manual maintenance, there are number of difficulties and drawbacks
that exist in this system.

Disadvantages of the existing System:

 Done manually
 Increases paper work
 High chances of errors
 Time taking process

IV. PROPOSED SYSTEM

The proposed system “Automatic Timetable Generator” is designed to be more efficient than the actual manual system. It invokes all
base tasks that are now carried out manually. The final system should be able to generate time tables in a complete automated way
which will save a lot of time and effort of an institute administration. Ease of use for user of system so that he/she can make automatic
time table. It focuses on optimization of resources i.e. teachers, labs and elective subjects etc. This system provides a facility for
everyone to view timetable and it generates multiple useful views from created time table.

Description:

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 Most colleges have a number of different courses and each course has „n‟ number of subjects.
 Now there are limited faculties, and each faculty might be teaching more than one subjects.
 So now the time table needed to schedule the entire faculty at provided time slots in such a way that their timings do not overlap.
 We use a customized algorithm for this purpose.

Fig 1: System Architecture Fig 2: Flow Chart diagram

Advantage of Proposed System:

 Easier slot assigning.
 Less time consumption.
 NO slot clashes.
 Always considers the other department slots first.
 Various possible slot combinations can be acquired.
 User friendly.

V. IMPLEMENTATION

A. Insertion module:

In this module we provide various user inputs to our system which acts raw data for creating the final time table.

1. Faculty details: In this sub module various details of faculty are inserted such as faculty name, email and contact number. And we
also provide a unique faculty id which helps in referencing throughout our software and it also acts a login credentials.
2. Student details: In this sub module various details of student are inserted such as student name, email and contact number. And we
also provide a unique student id which helps in referencing throughout our software and it also acts a login credentials.

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3. Subject details: In this sub module details of subjects are inserted that are in our curriculum such as subject name and subject code.
We try to store the theory subjects and lab subjects separately. The type of subject (compulsory or elective) is also specified for
each subject in our database so that it becomes easy for us in future use.
4. Add No. of periods: To generate timetable for a particular semester and section first the timeslots need to be specified for each
week day. Here you need to again specify whether that period is allocated for lab or for theory.
5. Mapping: In this sub module we take user input such as what are all the subjects that are present in each semester for each section
and which faculty is taking which theory subjects and which lab in a particular semester and we store it our database.

Fig 3: Insertion Module

B. Allocation module:

In this module, user can choose any semester randomly to start the process. It starts filling the slots from the Monday by selecting a
particular subject, faculty that is mapped with that subject gets allotted to that slot of the day. The various constraints are checked every
time the slot is filled. It will not be blocked if any of the constraints is not satisfying.

The given set of constraints need to be satisfied:

 A classroom is not assigned to more than one teacher at the same time.
 A teacher cannot teach more than one class at the same time.
 A teacher cannot teach more than three subjects in a day for a single class.
 During the lab hours particular lecturers should not be allotted with the theory class.
 A faculty is assigned maximum of 4 lectures in a day OR maximum of 1 practical session and of 2 theoretical sessions in a day.

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Fig 4: Allocation Module

C. Display Module:

In this module we can view how the time table is generated of each class. We have also provided the feature to view the class time table.
1. View timetable: In this we can view the class wise generated time table by selecting the particular semester and section which we
want to see. The time table will have subject with faculty who handling that subject.
2. View Faculty: All the faculty details can be viewed.
3. View students: All the student details can be viewed.

Fig 5: Display Module

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Description:

1. The admin can add the HOD and can also view HOD, faculty, and student details which are already been added.
2. The HOD can add the faculty and can view the faculty members and students who have been already added. He can add what are all
the subjects that are present in that department along with the subject type whether it‟s a theory subject or lab subject. After that he
can assign those subjects which are added to the whole department, for each semester and section. Here while assigning, the
category of each subject to that semester need to be specified whether it is a compulsory or elective subject. Now the numbers of
periods can be added. All the elective subjects of that semester can be viewed for that semester students to elect their electives and
further the HOD can view how many students has opted for which subject (acceptance count of each elective subject in each
semester and section can be viewed) and he can approve it.
3. Here for generating the timetable, each faculty needs to get logged in and give the details of the subjects which they teach. On
selecting the semester and section the faculty can see what are all the subjects that are available in that semester to be taught by him
which are not yet added by any of the faculty to that particular class in that semester.
4. If the faculty selects one subject to teach for a particular class in a semester, that subject will not be seen again in that list to be
added by that faculty or by any other faculty member as it‟s already been added for that section in that semester. As a subject can be
taught by only one faculty member for a particular class that subject will not be seen for any other faculty or even for that faculty in
the list to add it again.
5. Finally the HOD can generate the timetable now for a particular section in a semester.
6. Basically to start the process of generating timetables for all the section in all semester and departments first we need to generate a
timetable for a section in a semester randomly and submit it. Based on this sections‟ timetable the other timetables can be generated
comparing to the already generated timetable to avoid clashes and to satisfy all other constraints.

Fig 6: Timetable Generation

VI. CONCLUSION

The Automatic Timetable Generator is a web based system. Its basic function is to generate the time table according to the data filled.
This application will simplify the process of time table generation smoothly which may otherwise needed to done using spread sheet
manually possibly leading to constraints problem that are difficult to determine when time table is generated manually. The project is
developed in such a way that, no slot clashes occur providing features to tailor the timetable as of wish. Separate timetable for the
individual class are generated automatically by this system. Various slot combinations can be acquired so that another timetable is
generated as of need. The project reduces time consumption and the pain in framing the timetable manually.

The future enhancement that can be developed from the project may include Leave Management, Exam Schedule Generation, Exam
Room Scheduling and Time Constrain Problems. This enhancement can be achieved my making further modifications keeping the
approach and techniques used for this project.

VII. REFERENCES

[1] D. Srinivasan, Tian Hou Seow, Jian Xin Xu, “Automated time table generation using multiple context reasoning for university
modules”, Proceedings of the 2002 Congress on Evolutionary Computation. CEC'02 (Cat. No.02TH8600) published by IEEE in 07
August 2002
[2] Adithya R Pai, Ashwitha S, Raksha Shetty, Prof. Geethalaxmi, “Automatic timetable generator”, International Journal of Computer
Engineering and Applications, Volume XII, Issue II, www.ijcea.com ISSN 2321-3469, Feb. 18

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[3] Sundresan Al Perumal, Mujahid Tabassum, Norita Md Norwawi, Ganthan Al Narayana Samy, “Development of an Efficient
Timetable System”, 8th IEEE International Conference on Control System, Computing and Engineering (ICCSCE) - Nov 2018
[4] Bhaduri a “University timetable scheduling using genetic algorithm”. Advances in Recent Technologies in Communication and
Computing, 2009. ARTCom '09. International Conference.
[5] Dipti Shrinivasan “Automated time table generation using multiple context reasoning for university modules” Published in:
evolutionary computation, 2002. cec '02. proceedings of the 2002 congress on (volume:2).
[6] Simon Robinson, Christian Nagel, Jay Glynn, Morgan Skinner, Karli Watson, Bill Evjen “Professional C#”, 3rd Edition, Wiley
Publishing, Inc 2004
[7] Silberschatz, H. Korth and S. Sudarshan, “Database System Concepts”, A Timetable Prediction For Technical Educational System
Using Genetic Algorithm, 4th Edition, McGraw-Hill International, 2002
[8] V. Abhinaya, K. Sahithi, K. Akaanksha, “Online Application of Automatic Time-Table Generator”, International Research Journal
of Engineering and Technology (IRJET), Volume: 06 Issue: 02, Feb 2019
[9] Anuja Chowdhary, Priyanka Kakde, Shruti Dhoke, Sonali Ingle, Rupal Rushiya, Dinesh Gawande, “TIMETABLE GENERATION
SYSTEM”, International Journal of Computer Science and Mobile Computing (IJCSMC), Vol. 3, Issue. 2, February 2014
[10] Deeksha C S, A Kavya Reddy, Nagambika A, Akash Castelino, K Panimozhi, “Automatic Timetable Generation System”, Journal
of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR), Volume 2, Issue 4, April 2015.

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