Modelling and Solving Course Scheduling Problems (Case Study: Mathematics Study Program, Institut Teknologi Sumatera)

Every educational institution has a standard process for scheduling courses. In scheduling, there are a lot of constraints that must be fulfilled, including hard and soft constraints. Hard constraints are constraints that must be met and cannot be disregarded; a lecturer, for instance, is limited to teaching one course in one room at a time. Soft constraints, on the other hand, are a type of restriction that can be broken, but breaks are minimized to the greatest extent possible. The aim of this research is to produce an optimal lecture schedule and to provide alternative solutions. The case study taken is the even semester at Institut Teknologi Sumatera (ITERA) Mathematics Study Program. The problem is modelled using Goal Programming and solved using LINGO. The result shows that the scheduling can fulfill every requirement.