Quantum-Inspired Genetic Evolutionary Algorithm for Course Timetabling

The course timetabling problem (CTP), as a typical combinatorial optimization problem (COP), has been proved to be NP-Complete. Due to its complexity, the general genetic algorithm converges slowly and easily converges to local optima. A novel quantum-inspired evolutionary algorithms (QEA) is put forward for the CTP. The QEA uses genetic operators of Q-bit as well as updating operator of quantum gate which is introduced as a variation operator to drive the individuals toward better solutions. The experimental results and comparisons demonstrate that the QEA not only perform significantly better convergence rate than the general genetic algorithm but also can provide a set of high quality timetables.