DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF WEB BASED TIME TABLE SYSTEM FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT

CHAPTER ONE

1. 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.

1. Maximize individual in timetable scheduling or other resources.
2. Minimize time required to complete the entire process for timetable scheduling.
3. 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.

1. 1. AIM AND OBJECTIVES.

In solving problems of timetable scheduling, there is need for an effective and efficient techniques or methods.

The only method proven to be effective and effective is the computer-based approach. The approach that automates all the manual concepts of timetable scheduling thereby eliminate all the problems associated with the manual technique.

To this end, this project work is designed to introduce computer bases approach to the manual method of timetable scheduling.

1.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY.

Timetable scheduling is a complex and time consuming process. Generating timetable for all levels in a university system will definitely take a lot time. For the purpose of this work, time able creation will be based on degree programme only with focus on 100 and 200 level courses, this will be an effective way to start the process of time table creation.

Also, the work will be made to run on the internet backbone this will make the application distributed and network based.

1.4 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The proposed development is a time consuming process to this end the project will be streamline to 100 and 200-degree programme due to time limitation.

Another problem is the inadequate research materials on the subject of timetable scheduling and creation. This project work made use of the little available materials.

1.5 ORGANIZATION OF THE WORK

The project work is organized into chapter for the purpose of clarity. The remaining part of this work is organized thus:  chapter two discusses the review of relevant literature on timetable on timetable scheduling and optimization.

Chapter three focuses on the design of the processes are discussed on this chapter.

Chapter four discusses the implementation of the developed system. Chapter five concludes the work with conclusion and recommendation

                                           CHAPTER TWO                                          

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

According to Abacus (2007) increasing demands on expensive and scarce resources in education are forcing the industry to adopt management style that emphasize more efficient utilization of time, money and resources, both human and physical. Academic timetable assign resources to teaching activities and represent the most accurate measure of how efficient the organization is in terms of utilization. Educational institutions also provide valuable and complex service to literally thousands of students, whose satisfaction can be one of the institution’s greatest assets. And yet, many institutions still rely on manual timetabling techniques involving hundreds of wasted main-hours or computer-assisted methods that merely create working timetables, without attempting to optimize the allocation and utilization of resources.

Because time and resources utilization have direct financial implication and improvement of even a few percent could lead to a substantial reduction in costs for an institution. Imagine being able to avoid constructing a new building by making better use of existing venues or of increasing student performance and throughput by providing all students with completely clash free and evenly spread examination timetables.

According to Ausiello (2003) timetabling problem is an optimization problem. Furthermore, Wikipedia (2008) expressed optimization problems as the problem of finding the best solution from all feasible problems. The problems are listed below:

1. 1. Time table scheduling that is done manually most times cannot be easily accessed by the students.
   2. There is a lot of delay that arises from the manual method used in timetable scheduling

For each optimization problems there is corresponding decision problem that ask whether there is a feasible solution for some particular measure (Kann, 2002). Effective allocation of courses to the availability lecture hall is optimization problem and centers on decision problem. In computability theory and computational complexity theory, a decision problem is a question in some formal system with a yes –or –no answer, depending on the values of some input parameters.

Pius (2007) considered university timetable creation system has constraint satisfaction problems (CSP). CSP are mathematical problems defined as a set of objects whose state must satisfy a number of constraints or limitations. CSP represent the entries in a problem as an homogenous collection of finite constraints over variables which is solved by constraint satisfaction methods. CSP are subject of intense research in both artificial intelligence and operations. The regularity in their formulation provides a common basis to analysis and solve problems of many unrelated families.

University course timetabling problems (UTPS) are search problems in which subjects must be arranged around a set of time slots so as to satisfy a given constraints and optimize a set of objective. Scheduling under constraints hard or soft is complex task, having an NP-completed degree of complexity {Piola. 2002} and generally is associated to dependant attribute domain so necessitates specific optimization algorithms. This means that, in a space of possibilities of finite time, deterministic and exhaustive search techniques may probably fail

2.1 FORMULATION OF TIMETABLE PROBLEMS

The lecture and examination timetables so formulated as follows:

Problem = {L,S,D,C,W}

Where L = {11, 12 ….1t} is a set of lectures

S = {s1, s2,…………Ss} is the subject,

D = {t1, t2,…………..tu} is a set of timetable for each subject, each timetable consist of a days of the week, a time period and a location of classroom, where the days of the week is Monday to Friday and the time period is 9 to 4. And R = {r1, r2,…rc} is the set of location of classroom. Also C = {C1, C2…..Cm} is a set of constraints and w = {w1, w2 ……..Wo} is a set of weights (i.e. Penalties) for the constraints.

2.2 CONSTRAINTS

Rudova, et al (2003) expressed that constraint can be classified as hand or soft. Hard constraints are those to which a timetable has to adhere in order to be satisfied. A timetable is not viable if it does not satisfy them. Soft constraints are also those which should not been violated, but if this is not possible then the resulting timetable is not optimal. Valves of weights for various constraints are specified.

2.3 INTERNET BACKBONE

Automata timetabling systems were designed to run on desktop system without Network capabilities. Today, internet has revolutionized application. There are numerous application that now run on internet backbone. This enables integration of network capabilities to application development.

According to Walter (2003), Internet is a global system of interconnected computer network that enhance data by packet snatching, using the standardized internet protocol suite (TCP/IP). It is a “network of network” that consist of millions of private and public, academic business and government networks of local to global scope that are linked by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless connections and other technologies.

The internet is created to carry out various information resources and service, such as electronic mail, online sales, online gaining and the inter-linked hyper fact documents and other resources of the World Wide Web (WWW).

Internet has grown from plain tent to multimedia based system. This has enforced creation of applications that run on internet protocol (IP) suite. Today many applications are working on the internet backbone suing the World Wide Web as the communication channel.

2.4 THE CONCEPT OF WORLD WIDE WEB (WWW)

The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the internet with a web browser. One can view web pages that may contain text, images videos and other multimedia and navigate between then suing hyperlinks.