University Schedule Planning Project Using Genetic Algorithm (JAVA)

Personal information: Hi everyone, I am a computer science student; which is (unfortunately) supposed to work on this NP-complete problem for my Final Year project. I am not that proficient in programming other than my assignments and the things I learned at university. So I apologize for any uninformed questions I might ask.

University Schedule Planning Project Using Genetic Algorithm:

This is my theme for the final project of the university. I have already gathered the information I need and wrote my proposal and progress report, so I am fully aware of the fact that this topic is NP-Complete. However, the goal of my project is not to create a golden schedule that is completely optimal and hassle-free, but instead I just have to make sure it is acceptable and does not violate some of my rules.

As far as my methodology and how I want to create this application, I decided to use two main artificial intelligence techniques to solve the problem; Genetic Algorithm and Limiting Constraints. I came up with some rules and divided them into two main groups; soft limits and hard limits. So the algorithm should work like this:

, ( , , , ). . , (, , ). , . . . , ; , , , ( ) . , (, , , ..), GA GA.

This was all a good approach to solving the problem until I started programming. It's good that they looked good on paper, but my programming skills are holding me back from completing the project.

I have some questions regarding the coding part and I would appreciate if you guys can help me.

Questions: 1. Any good tutorial and guideline for genetic algorithms libraries in java? I decided to use Jgap, from people's suggestions on other topics, but I can't find a good tutorial on the internet about this, and unfortunately after looking at some of the examples provided in the Jgap library I still can't figure it out , what is happening there.

2. For the constraint programming part that I want to apply, do I need to use any particular Java library, or can I do it using If / Else or switch commands? If so, please give me the name and details.

   ---

The most important question:  1. How to create a schedule? Ok, as I said, I'm not a very good programmer. So you can assume that I am stuck in the first phase of my project by creating a schedule. Should I treat it as an object? and what data structure do you usually use to create such as schedule? Array, linklist, queue?

Here's my attempt at creating a schedule:

                              **UPDATED**

      

        
        
        
      

    

After working sometimes on this project. I managed to create a schedule. Here is an update for the classes that I previously shared.

public class Subject {


public String name;
public int Students;
public String NameOfLecturer;
public ClassVenu addVenues;

public Subject(String argName, String argNameofLecturer, int  argStudents) 
{ name = argName; NameOfLecturer=argNameofLecturer; Students=argStudents;

}

public String toString() { return name;}}

      

        
        
        
      

    

public class ClassVenu {
  public String ClassName;
public int ClassCapacity;

public ClassVenu(int argClassCapacity, String argClassName)
{ ClassName = argClassName; ClassCapacity = argClassCapacity; }

    }

      

        
        
        
      

    

public class Days extends Hours{

public Days(Subject a, Subject b,Subject c, Subject d,Subject e, Subject  f,Subject g,Subject h, Subject j)
{int i=0;
   TimeSlot[i]=a;
    TimeSlot[i+1]=b;
     TimeSlot[i+2]=c;
      TimeSlot[i+3]=d;
       TimeSlot[i+4]=e;
        TimeSlot[i+5]=f;
         TimeSlot[i+6]=g;
          TimeSlot[i+7]=h;
           TimeSlot[i+8]=j;

   }

      

        
        
        
      

    

package fyp_small_timetable;
public class Hours {
public Subject [] TimeSlot = new Subject[9];

      

        
        
        
      

    

}

 package fyp_small_timetable;



public static void main(String[] args) {
    //creating Subjects
Subject A = new Subject("Human Computer Interaction", "Batman" , 49);
Subject B = new Subject("Artificial Intelligence", "Batman" , 95);
Subject C = new Subject("Human Computer Interaction", "Batman" ,180);
Subject D = new Subject("Human Computer Interaction", "Batman" , 20);
Subject E = new Subject("Empty", "No-One", 0);
    //Creating Class Venue
ClassVenu Class1 = new ClassVenu(100,"LecturerTheater1");
ClassVenu Class2 = new ClassVenu(50,"LecturerTheater2");
ClassVenu Class3 = new ClassVenu(200,"LecturerTheater3");

    //Creating Days
Days Day1 =new Days(A, A, E, B, B, E, E, A, A);
Days Day2 =new Days(C, C, E, D, D, E, E, A, A);
Days Day3 =new Days(E, E, E, B, B, E, E, A, A);
Days Day4 =new Days(C, C, E, C, C, E, E, A, A);
Days Day5 =new Days(A, A, E, B, B, E, E, A, A);


//creating Timetable
TimeTable T1 = new TimeTable(Day1, Day2, Day3, Day4, Day5);

List<Subject> answer = T1.ShowTimetable(T1);
System.out.println(answer);


}

}

      

        
        
        
      

    

Please keep in mind that the above code is just a prototype (my attempt at creating a schedule).

If anyone would like to help me, I can provide complete documentation of what I have done so far on this project.

Thanks to everyone who helps me and wishes this to help other people of Hirad