Minimizing conflicts: a heuristic repair method for constraint satisfaction and scheduling problems
Artificial Intelligence - Special volume on constraint-based reasoning
Tabu Search
Computers and Intractability: A Guide to the Theory of NP-Completeness
Computers and Intractability: A Guide to the Theory of NP-Completeness
Experimental Evaluation of Heuristic Optimization Algorithms: A Tutorial
Journal of Heuristics
A Survey of Automated Timetabling
Artificial Intelligence Review
A New Genetic Local Search Algorithm for Graph Coloring
PPSN V Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature
A Memetic Algorithm for University Exam Timetabling
Selected papers from the First International Conference on Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling
Stochastic Local Search: Foundations & Applications
Stochastic Local Search: Foundations & Applications
Design and Analysis of Experiments
Design and Analysis of Experiments
SLS'07 Proceedings of the 2007 international conference on Engineering stochastic local search algorithms: designing, implementing and analyzing effective heuristics
Measurability and reproducibility in university timetabling research: discussion and proposals
PATAT'06 Proceedings of the 6th international conference on Practice and theory of automated timetabling VI
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Tabu Search (TS) is a well known local search method which has been widely used for solving AI problems. Different versions of TS have been proposed in the literature, and many features of TS have been considered and tested experimentally. The feature that is present in almost all TS variants is the so called (short-term) tabu list which is recognised as the crucial issue of TS. However, the definition of the parameters associated with the tabu list remains in most TS applications still a handcrafted activity. In this work we undertake a systematic study of the relative influence of few relevant tabu list features on the performances of TS solvers. In particular, we apply statistical methods for the design and analysis of experiments. The study focuses on a fundamental theoretical problem (GRAPH COLOURING) and on one of its practical specialisation (EXAMINATION TIMETABLING), which involves specific constraints and objectives. The goal is to determine which TS features are more critical for the good performance of TS in a general context of applicability. The general result is that, when the quantitative parameters are well tuned, the differences with respect to qualitative parameters become less evident.