Balancing Academic Curriculum Problem Solution: A Discrete Firefly-Based Approach

Algorithm 1

Modified discrete firefly algorithm with local search mechanism.

1. Define the objective function

2. Initialize n fireflies, x_i = (x_i1, x_i2, ………, x_id)

3. while(t < Iterations)

4.   Identify each fireflies absolute brightness according to equation

5.   for i=1:n              for n fireflies

6.    for j=1:n            for n fireflies

7.    if (I_i<I_j)

8.      Determine the distance among fireflies i and j using equation 13

9.      Determine the attractiveness of firefly j attracting i using equation 12

10.     Relocate firefly i to j using equation 14

11.     end if

12.  end j

13.     Using a discretization method, scatter placement after movement. // Modified FA (Discretization using sigmoid function)

14.  end i

15.   if (t > 2)

16.     Using the local search technique, optimize the local optimum solution. // Local Search Mechanism

17.  end if

18. end while

19. Obtain the optimum placement of courses in different semesters