In the team orienteering problem (TOP) a set of locations is given, each with a score. The goal is to determine a fixed number of routes, limited in length, that visit some locations and maximise the sum of the collected scores. This paper describes an algorithm that combines different local...

The Traveling Umpire Problem (TUP) is a challenging combinatorial optimization problem based on scheduling umpires for Major League Baseball. The TUP aims at assigning umpire crews to the games of a fixed tournament, minimizing the travel distance of the umpires. The present paper introduces two...

In this paper we present a decomposed metaheuristic approach to solve a real-world university course timetabling problem. Essential in this problem are the overlapping time slots and the irregular weekly timetables. A first stage in the approach reduces the number of subjects through the...

Quantitative decision support on personnel planning is often restricted to either rostering or staffing. There exist some approaches in which aspects at the staffing level and the rostering level are treated in a sequential way. Obviously, such practice risks producing suboptimal solutions at...

The ship placement problem constitutes a daily challenge for planners in tide river harbours. In essence, it entails positioning a set of ships into as few lock chambers as possible while satisfying a number of general and specific placement constraints. These constraints make the ship placement...