Intelligent Timetabling Using a Microcomputer Available to Purchase

The timetabling of classes is a major education management activity, with the complexity of the process being highest for tertiary‐level institutions, especially where students and programme numbers as well as classroom requirements are growing. Describes the pioneering development of a microcomputer‐based timetabler using expert system technology for a Hong Kong tertiary institution with a very dynamic academic environment. The knowledge, strategies and heuristics of a small, centralized group of schedulers were modelled and subsequently represented in a readily‐available expert system shell which runs on a standard IBM‐type microcomputer. Discusses the broad feasibility of such expert‐level timetablers, and more generally the application of this knowledge‐based systems approach.