Improving a Lecture Timetabling System for University-Wide Use

During the academic year 1996/97 the authors were commissioned by their institution to produce an automated timetabling system for use by all departments within the Faculty of Science. The system had to cater for the varying requirements of all the departments, be easy to use, robust, expandable, and timetable 100% of events fully automatically within a reasonable time. The timetables produced had not only to be workable, but also had to be 'good' with respect to management defined criteria. The work was intended as a pilot study for later extension to the whole institution. This paper describes the enhancements to the user interface and timetabling engine that were found to be necessary to meet the more extensive needs of a faculty.