Rong Qu's Publications

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Journals (Peer-Reviewed Published/To Appear)

*corresponding/main author; ** in CS or Mathematics by ISI Essential Science Indicators (Dec 2011).

R. Qu*, E.K. Burke, B. McCollum, L.T.G. Merlot, and S.Y. Lee
"A Survey of Search Methodologies and Automated System Development for Examination Timetabling"
Journal of Scheduling, 12(1): 55-89, 2009. doi: 10.1007/s10951-008-0077-5, .pdf
Online bibliography on exam timetabling 1995-2009
Top 10% cited **
R. Qu* and E.K. Burke
"Hybridisations within a Graph Based Hyper-heuristic Framework for University Timetabling Problems"
Journal of Operational Research Society, 60: 1273-1285, 2009. doi: 10.1057/jors.2008.102, .pdf
Top 10% cited **
Top 5 highly cited paper at JORS 2009/2010
R. Qu* E.K. Burke and B.McCollum
"Adaptive Automated Construction of Hybrid Heuristics for Exam Timetabling and Graph Colouring Problems"
European Journal of Operational Research, 198(2): 392-404, 2009, doi: 10.1016/j.ejor.2008.10.001, .pdf
Top 10% cited **
P. Brucker, E.K. Burke, T. Curtois, R. Qu* and G. Vanden Berghe
"A Shift Sequence Based Approach for Nurse Scheduling and a New Benchmark Dataset"
Journal of Heuristics, 16(4): 559-573, 2010. doi: 10.1007/s10732-008-9099-6 .pdf.
Top 10% cited **
B. McCollum, P. McMullan, B. Paechter, R. Lewis, A. Schaerf, L. Di Gaspero, A. J. Parkes, R. Qu, and E.K. Burke
"Setting the Research Agenda in Automated Timetabling: The Second International Timetabling Competition"
INFORMS Journal of Computing, 22(1): 120-130, 2010. doi: 10.1287/ijoc.1090.0320 .pdf
Top 1% cited **
E.K. Burke, A. J. Eckersley, B. McCollum, S. Petrovic and R. Qu*
"Hybrid Variable Neighbourhood Approaches to University Exam Timetabling"
European Journal of Operational Research, 206: 46-53, 2010. doi: 10.1016/j.ejor.2010.01.044 .pdf
Top 10% cited **
E.K. Burke, J. Li and R. Qu
"A Hybrid Model of Integer Programming and Variable Neighbourhood Search for Highly-Constrained Nurse Rostering Problems"
European Journal of Operational Research, 203(2), 484-493, 2010. doi: 10.1016/j.ejor.2009.07.036, .pdf
Top 10% cited **
B. Ryan, R. Qu, A. Schock, T. Parry
"Integrating human factors and operational research in a multidisciplinary investigation of road maintenance"
Ergonomics, 54(5): 436-452, 2011. doi: 10.1080/00140139.2011.562983 .pdf
2011 Best Journal Paper at Human Factors Research Group, University of Nottingham.
E.K. Burke, T.E. Curtois, G. Post, R. Qu and B. Veltman
"A Hybrid Heuristic Ordering and Variable Neighbourhood Search for the Nurse Rostering Problem"
European Journal of Operational Research, 188(2), 330-341, 2008. doi: 10.1016/j.ejor.2007.04.030, .pdf
Top 10% cited **
E.K. Burke, B. McCollum, A. Meisels, S. Petrovic and R. Qu*
"A Graph-Based Hyper Heuristic for Educational Timetabling Problems"
European Journal of Operational Research, 176: 177-192, 2007. doi: 10.1016/j.ejor.2005.08.012, .pdf
Top 0.1% cited **
E.K. Burke, S. Petrovic, R. Qu*
"Case Based Heuristic Selection for Timetabling Problems"
Journal of Scheduling, 9: 115-132, 2006. doi: 10.1007/s10951-006-6775-y, .pdf
Top 1% cited **
E.K. Burke, B. MacCarthy, S. Petrovic, R. Qu*
"Multiple-Retrieval Case-Based Reasoning for Course Timetabling Problems"
Journal of Operations Research Society, 57(2): 148-162, 2006. doi: 10.1057/palgrave.jors.2601970 .pdf
Top 10% cited **
E.K. Burke, B. MacCarthy, S. Petrovic, R. Qu*
"Structured Cases in Case-Based Reasoning - Re-using and Adapting Cases for Time-tabling Problems"
Knowledge-Based Systems, 13(2-3): 159-165, 2000. doi: 10.1016/S0950-7051(00)00057-5. .pdf
Top 10% cited ** (Oct 2010)
J. Li, E.K. Burke, T. Curtois, S. Petrovic and R. Qu.
"The Falling Tide Algorithm: a New Multi-objective Approach for Complex Workforce Scheduling".
Omega – International Journal of Management Science, 40(3): 283-293 2012. doi: 10.1016/j.omega.2011.05.004 .pdf
N.R. Sabar, M. Ayob, G. Kendall, R. Qu
"A Honey-bee Mating Optimization Algorithm for Educational Timetabling Problems"
European Journal of Operational Research, 216(3), 533-543, 2012. doi: 10.1016/j.ejor.2011.08.006 .pdf
P. Brucker, R. Qu*, E.K. Burke
"Personnel Scheduling: Models and Complexity"
European Journal of Operational Research, 210(3): 467-473, 2011. doi: 10.1016/j.ejor.2010.11.017 .pdf
R. Qu*, Y. Xu, J. Castro, D. Landa-Silva.
"Particle Swarm Optimization for the Steiner Tree in Graph and Delay-Constrained Multicast Routing Problems."
Accepted by Journal of Heuristics with minor modifications, 2011. .pdf
B. McCollum, P. McMullan, A.J. Parkes, E.K. Burke, R. Qu
"A New Model for Automated Examination Timetabling"
to appear at Annals of Operations Research, 2011. .pdf
Y. Xu and R. Qu
"An Iterative Local Search Approach based on Fitness Landscapes Analysis for the Delay-constrained Multicast Routing Problem"
Computer Communications, 35: 352-365, 2012, doi: 10.1016/j.comcom.2011.10.011 .pdf
Y. Xu and R. Qu
"A Hybrid Scatter Search Meta-heuristic for Delay-constrained Multicast Routing Problems"
Applied intelligence, 2011, doi: 10.1007/s10489-010-0256-x .pdf
H. Xing and R. Qu
"A Compact Genetic Algorithm for the Network Coding Based Resource Minimization Problem"
Applied Intelligence, 2011. doi: 10.1007/s10489-011-0298-8 .pdf
N.R. Sabar, M. Ayob, G. Kendall, R. Qu
"A Graph Coloring Constructive Hyper-Heuristic for Examination Timetabling Problems"
Applied Intelligence, 2011. doi: 10.1007/s10489-011-0309-9 .pdf
E.K. Burke, N. Pham, R. Qu, J. Yellen.
"Linear Combinations of Heuristics for Examination Timetabling".
accepted by Annals of OR, doi: 10.1007/s10479-011-0854-y, 2011. .pdf
R. Bai, G. Kendall, R. Qu, J. Atkin.
"Tabu assisted guided local search approaches for freight service network design."
Information Sciences, doi: 10.1016/j.ins.2011.11.028 , .pdf, 2011
E.K. Burke, T. Curtois, R. Qu and G. Vanden Berghe.
"A Time Pre-defined Variable Depth Search for Nurse Rostering".
accepted with minor modifications at INFORMS Journal on Computing. .pdf 2011
J. Li, E.K. Burke and R. Qu
"A Pattern Recognition Based Intelligent Search Method: Two Case Studies on the Assignment Problem"
Applied Intelligence, 2011. doi: 10.1007/s10489-010-0270-z
E.K. Burke, J. Li and R. Qu
"A Pareto-Based Search Methodology for Multi-objective Nurse Scheduling"
Annals of OR, 2011. doi: 10.1007/s10479-009-0590-8 .pdf
H. Xing and R. Qu
"A Population Based Incremental Learning for Network Coding Resources Minimization"
IEEE Communication Letters, 99: 1-3, 2011. doi: 10.1109/LCOMM.2011.051911.110274 .pdf
Y. Xu and R. Qu
"Solving Multi-objective Multicast Routing Problems by Evolutionary Multi-objective Simulated Annealing Algorithms with Variable Neighborhoods"
Journal of Operational Research Society, 62: 313-325, 2010, doi: 10.1057/jors.2010.138 .pdf
J. Li, E.K. Burke and R. Qu
"Integrating Neural Networks and Logistic Regression to Underpin Hyper-heuristic Search"
Knowledge-Based Systems, 24(2): 322-330, 2010. doi: 10.1016/j.knosys.2010.10.004
E.K. Burke, T. Curtois, R. Qu and G. Vanden Berghe
"A Scatter Search for the Nurse Rostering Problem"
Journal of Operational Research Society, 61: 1667-1679, 2010. doi: 10.1057/jors.2009.118 .pdf

Journals (Under Review/Preparation)

R. Qu, Y. Xu, A Simulated Annealing based Genetic Local Search Algorithm for Multi-objective Multicast Routing Problems, under review, 2009
E.K. Burke, N. Pham, R. Qu. A Univariate Marginal Distribution based Hyper-heuristic for Three-Dimensional Strip Packing Problems, 2009
R. Qu, B. Berry, Capital Budgeting Problems, the Model and Meta-heuristic Algorithms, 2010

Book Chapters/Edited Books/Journal Editorial:

R. Qu (ed.)
"Proceedings of the 25th Workshop of the UK PLANNING AND SCHEDULING Special Interest Group",
December, 2006, Nottingham, UK. ISSN 1368-5708. online proceedings available here
R. Qu, M. Fox and D. Long (Guest editors)
"Special Issue of Artificial Intelligence Planning and Scheduling"
Journal of Scheduling, 12(3), June, 2009. editorial
E.K. Burke, M. Dror, S. Petrovic, R. Qu*
"Hybrid Graph Heuristics within a Hyper-heuristic Approach to Exam Timetabling Problems"
B.L. Golden, S. Raghavan and E.A. Wasil (eds.). The Next Wave in Computing, Optimization, and Decision Technologies. Springer. Jan 2005. .pdf
Top 10% cited ** (Dec 2011)

Refereed Conference papers:

H. Xing and R. Qu
"A Population Based Incremental Learning for Delay Constrained Network Coding Resource Minimization"
The 8th European Event on the Application of Nature-inspired Techniques for Telecommunication Networks (EvoCOMNET'11) pp. 51-60, at EvoStar'2011, 27-29 April 2011, Torino, Italy. .pdf
Burke, E.K. and Qu, R. and Soghier, A.
"An Adaptive Tie Breaking and Hybridisation Hyper-Heuristic for Exam Timetabling Problems"
Nature Inspired Cooperative Strategies for Optimization (NICSO 2011). .pdf
P. Brucker and R. Qu*
"Network Flow Models for Intraday Personnel Scheduling Problems"
The 8th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling (PATAT 2010), 10-13 August 2010, Belfast, Northern Ireland. .pdf
E.K. Burke, R. Qu and A. Soghier
"Adaptive Selection of Heuristics for Improving Constructed Exam Timetables"
The 8th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling (PATAT 2010), 10-13 August 2010, Belfast, Northern Ireland. .pdf
F. He and R. Qu
"Constraint-directed Local Search to Nurse Rostering Problems"
6th International Workshop on Local Search Techniques in Constraint Satisfaction (LSCS 2009), CP'09, 20 September 2009, Lisbon, Portugal. .pdf
R. Qu*, F. He and E.K. Burke
"Hybridizing Integer Programming Models with an Adaptive Decomposition Approach for Exam Timetabling Problems"
The 4th Multidisciplinary International Scheduling: Theory and Applications 2009 (MISTA 2009), pp. 435-446, 10-12 August 2009, Dublin, Ireland. .pdf
Y. Xu and R. Qu
"A GRASP approach for the delay-constrained multicast routing problem"
he 4th Multidisciplinary International Scheduling: Theory and Applications 2009 (MISTA 2009), pp. 93-104, 10-12 August 2009, Dublin, Ireland. .pdf
E.K. Burke, R. Qu and A. Soghier
"Adaptive Selection of Heuristics within a GRASP for Exam Timetabling Problems"
The 4th Multidisciplinary International Scheduling: Theory and Applications 2009 (MISTA 2009), pp. 409-423, 10-12 August 2009, Dublin, Ireland. .pdf
G. Ochoa, R. Qu and E.K. Burke
"Analyzing the Landscape of a Graph Based Hyper-heuristic for Timetabling Problems"
The Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO'09), pp. 341-348, 8-12 July, Montreal, Canada, .pdf
G. Baskaran, A. Bargiela and R. Qu
"Hierarchical Method for Nurse Rostering based on Granular Pre-processing of Constraints"
The 23rd EUROPEAN Conference on Modelling and Simulation, 9-12 June 2009, Madrid, Spain. .pdf
S. Khatijah Nor Abdul Rahim, A. Bargiela, Rong Qu
"Granular Modelling of Exam to Slot Allocation",
The 23rd EUROPEAN Conference on Modelling and Simulation, 9-12 June 2009, Madrid, Spain. .pdf
R. Qu*, F. He
"A Hybrid Constraint Programming Approach for Nurse Rostering Problems"
Allen T., Ellis R. and Petridis M. (eds.) Applications and Innovations in Intelligent Systems XVI. The Twenty-eighth SGAI International Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AI-2008), pp. 211-224, Cambridge, England, 9-11 December 2008. .pdf
R. Qu*, Y. Xu, G. Kendall
"A Variable Descent Search Algorithm for Delay-Constrained Least-Cost Multicast Routing"
Lecture Notes in Computer Science 5851, pp. 15-29, .pdf Learning and Intelligent OptimizatioN (LION 3), Trento, Italy, Jan 14-18, 2009. LION3 online publication.
N.R. Sabar, M. Ayob, G. Kendall and R. Qu
"Roulette wheel graph colouring for solving examination timetabling problems". The 3rd Annual International Conference on Combinatorial Optimization and Applications (COCOA'09), Lecture Notes in Computer Science 5573, pp. 463-470. .pdf
J.R. Carrington, N. Pham, R. Qu, J. Yellen
"An Enhanced Weighted Graph Model for Examination / Course Timetabling"
Proceedings of 26th Workshop of the UK Planning and Scheduling Special Interest Group 2007 (PlanSIG 2007), 9-16, Prague, Czech Republic, Dec, 2007. .pdf
R. Qu* and E.K. Burke
"Adaptive Decomposition and Construction for Examination Timetabling Problems"
Proceedings of the 3rd Multidisciplinary International Scheduling: Theory and Applications 2007 (MISTA 2007), pp. 418-425, Aug, 2007, Paris, France. .pdf
S. Abdullah, U. Aickelin, E.K. Burke, A. Mohamed Din and R. Qu
"Investigating a Hybrid Metaheuristic for Job Shop Rescheduling"
Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 4828, pp. 357-368, 2007. .pdf
M. Ayob, A. Malik, S. Abdullah, A.R. Hamdan, G. Kendall and R. Qu
"Solving a Practical Examination Timetabling Problem: A Case Study"
In: O. Gervasi and M. Gavrilova (Eds.): Lecture Notes in Computer Science 4707, Part III, pp. 611–624, 2007. .pdf
R. Qu* and E.K. Burke
"Hybrid Variable Neighbourhood Hyper-heuristics for Exam Timetabling Problems"
Proceedings of Metaheuristic International Conference 2005 (MIC 2005), Vienna, Austria, Aug 2005. .pdf (Note: there are updated results of this paper, which are different from the published ones. Please refer to the paper at this web page for the latest results.)
P. Brucker, R. Qu*, E.K. Burke and G. Post
"A Decomposition, Construction and Post-processing Approach for a Specific Nurse Rostering Problem"
Proceedings of the 2nd Multidisciplinary International Scheduling: Theory and Applications 2005 (MISTA 2005), pp. 397-406. New York, USA, Jul 2005. .pdf
E.K. Burke, A. J. Eckersley, B. McCollum, S. Petrovic and R. Qu
"Analysing Similarity in Exam Timetabling"
Proceedings of the 5th International Series of Conferences on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling 2004 (PATAT 2004), pp. 89-106. Pittsburgh, USA, Aug 2004. .pdf
E.K. Burke, A. Eckersley, B. McCollum, S. Petrovic, R. Qu
"Using Simulated Annealing to Study Behaviour of Various Exam Timetabling Data Sets"
Proceedings of Metaheuristic International Conference 2003 (MIC 2003), Kyoto, Japan, Aug 2003. .pdf
E.K. Burke, A. Eckersley, B. McCollum, S. Petrovic, R. Qu
"Similarity Measures for Exam Timetabling Problems"
Proceedings of the 1st Multidisciplinary International Scheduling: Theory and Applications 2003 (MISTA 2003), pp. 120-136. Nottingham, UK, Aug 2003. .pdf
E.K. Burke, S. Petrovic, R. Qu*
"Case-Based Heuristic Selection for Examination Timetabling"
Proceedings of Asia-Pacific Conference on Simulated Evolution and Learning (SEAL'02), pp. 277-281. Singapore, Nov, 2002. data set .pdf
E.K. Burke, B. MacCarthy, S. Petrovic, R. Qu*
"Knowledge Discovery in Hyper-heuristic Using Case-Based Reasoning on Course Timetabling"
Lecture Notes in Computer Science 2740, pp. 276-287, 2003. Also available in the Proceedings of PATAT'02, 90-103. Aug, 2002. .pdf
S. Petrovic, R. Qu*
"Case-Based Reasoning as a Heuristic Selector in a Hyper-Heuristic for Course Timetabling Problems"
Knowledge-Based Intelligent Information Engineering Systems and Allied Technologies, Volume 82, pp. 336-340. IOS Press. .pdf
E.K. Burke, B. MacCarthy, S. Petrovic, R. Qu*
"Case-based Reasoning in Course Timetabling: An Attribute Graph Approach"
Case-Based Reasoning Research and Development, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 2080, pp. 90-104, 2001. .pdf
E.K. Burke, B. MacCarthy, S. Petrovic, R. Qu*
"Structured Cases in Case-Based Reasoning - Re-using and Adapting Cases for Time-tabling Problems"
Proceedings of Expert Systsms 1999 (ES99), awarded as one of the six best technical papers. .pdf

Reports/Others:

A number of School of CS technical report can be found here
Benchmark problems site:
- Exam Timetabling Resources: a Bibliography on Exam Timetabling, (1995 - now) and Becnhmark Exam Timetabling Datasets.
- Capital Budgeting Resources: a Bibliography on meta-heuristics in capital budgeting and Becnhmark Datasets (under construction)
The Second International Timetabling Competition: Examination Timetabling Track
Preference Based Optimisation for Examination Timetabling Problems

Theses

PhD Thesis. "Case-Based Reasoning on for Course Timetabling Problems". University of Nottingham, Oct, 2002.
BSc Thesis. "Development of the Communication Control for a BBS-98 Distributed System". Jul, 1996. XiDian University, P. R. China

Selected presentations at conferences and ASAP/invited seminars

Invited talks:

"Hybridising constructive heuristics in hyper-heuristics”", Invited talk at Workshop of "Self-tuning, self-configuring and self-generating search heuristics" at the 11th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving From Nature (PPSN 2010), 11 - 15, September, 2010. .pdf
"Recent Research on Nurse Rostering and Other Ongoing Research in Scheduling and Optimisation"", Xi'an, China, March, 2008. .pdf.
"Recent Research on Nurse Rostering at ASAP Group"", Atoss, Munich, Germany, 17th-18th, September, 2007.pdf
Observations of a Graph-Based Hyper-heuristic to Timetabling Problems". University of Osnabruck, Germany. Nov 2004 .pdf