The Simulated Annealing (SA),Tabu Search (TS),Genetic Algorithm (GA),and Ant Colony System (ACS) are four main algorithms for solving challenging problems in intelligent systems. In this paper,we apply these four techniques and three novel hybrid combinations of these methods to a classical Examination Timetabling problem (ETP). The novel hybrid algorithms consist of a Sequential TS–ACS, a Hybrid ACS/TS,and a Sequential ACS–TS algorithms. These various hybrid combinations are tested on 10 different scenarios of the classical ETP. Statistical comparative analysis conclude that all of the three proposed novel techniques are significantly better than each of their non-hybrid competitors, and furthermore the Sequential ACS–TS provides the superior solution of all.

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