Semantic Components for Timetabling

Automated timetabling is a research domain that has occupied many researchers over the last 50 years. Several algorithms have proven to be applicable to timetabling but they are nearly all designed to address specific problems. The framework presented in this paper is a step towards a generic semi-automatic timetabling tool. The basis of the framework is an ontology for timetabling that we designed after having investigated different types of timetabling problem. A first step towards solving general problems consists of mapping their data representation to the ontology. That is carried out in such a way that existing data that is already available in databases can further be used throughout the application. In the next step, the tool assists in determining the constraints and objectives of the problem. The semantic components have three sources of information: meta-data about the database, domain knowledge about timetabling problems and external, non-domain-specific knowledge.