Course-Scheduler

A C++, University of Waterloo-specific course scheduler for minimizing workload in any term with a heuristic.

Overview

This program was created to find an optimal course plan throughout an undergraduate degree.

It applies a heuristic (minimize the maximum of the sum of course difficulties per term, data sourced from UWFlow) to find an optimal set of schedules for you to choose from for your degree.

Usage

(Optional) First, compile the project for this scheduler.

Second, update prerequisites.txt to contain updated prerequisite information. It needs all the courses in your plan (even if they have no prerequisites). (See Implementation Details for formatting information.)

Third, update fixed schedule.txt to contain your current plan. It is strongly suggested that there are only at most four blank study terms; otherwise, the program may take a ridiculous amount of time to run. (See Implementation Details for formatting information.)

Fourth, update sequence.txt to match your study sequence. (See Implementation Details for formatting information.)

Fifth, update wanted courses.txt with the courses you want to take. (See Implementation Details for formatting information.)

Sixth, run the program (Scheduler.exe) and view possible schedules.txt to decide your schedule!

Limitations

• All files must be manually updated to find a set of optimal schedules:
  • Prerequisites are not dynamically updated according to the University of Waterloo.
• Only supports generating terms with five courses per term.
• Only one heuristic to reduce the possible schedules.
• No GUI and only uses files.
• It requires all the courses you plan to take (no blank courses are supported).
• Horrible run time:
  • It can only reasonably handle scheduling 4 study terms; beyond that, it will take multiple minutes.
  • This could be remedied by only evaluating specific schedules still considered "optimal" depending on the heuristic.

Future Improvements / Suggestions

• Add more heuristics to decide possible schedules:
  • Maximize course overlap with friends.
  • Minimize the number of courses with early starts (prevent starts before 9:30).
  • Maximize the number of 1-hour lunch times.
  • Minimize the number of terms that have a course on Friday.
  • Any combination of the above heuristics.
• Allow for overloading or underloading courses in a term (remove the five courses per term limit).
• Apply heuristic while searching for the schedule (improve run time).
• Create a GUI or host this on a website to ease use.
• Dynamically update prerequisites from the course calendar.
• Allow sequence switching for more possible/optimal schedule choices.
• Add limits on run time to safeguard wasted scheduling time (and suggest an alternative heuristic).

Implementation Details

Four text files are used to generate the possible optimal schedules:

• fixed schedule.txt: This file specifies the courses you know you will take during a given study term to (1) not schedule these courses and (2) not overwrite this term.
  • The file is formatted as such

  • <Study Term Code>
    <Class>
    ...
    <Class>
    
    <Study Term Code>
    ...
    

  • Valid study term codes are 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 4A, and 4B.
• prerequisites.txt: This file specifies the prerequisites for each course, the terms they are available (Spring, Fall, Winter), and their difficulty according to UWFlow.
  • The file is formatted as such

  • <Course Code>
    %<UWFlow Easy>
    <Prerequisite 1> <Prerequisite 2>
    <Prerequisite 3>
    <Term Availability>
    
    <Course Code>
    ...
    

  • Note that for the first-course code, the prerequisites are (prerequisite 1 OR prerequisite 2) AND prerequisite 3.
• sequence.txt: This file specifies the study, work, and free terms scheduled in your degree.
  • The file is formatted as such

  • <Term Code>
    <Term Code>
    ...
    

  • Valid term codes are 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 4A, 4B, WT1, WT2, WT3, WT4, WT5, WT6, and OFF.
• wanted courses.txt: This file specifies the courses you plan to take during your degree.
  • The file is formatted as such

  • <Course Code>
    <Course Code>
    ...
    

  • Note that the amount of courses MUST allow for EXACTLY 5 courses per term (for non-fixed terms).