Course Details for DATABASE SYSTEMS II. (D-term 2001)

Course Homepage:

http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~cs4432

Class meetings:

In D-term, on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Fridays
2:00pm - 2:50pm in Fuller 320

Teaching Staff

Professor: Elke A. Rundensteiner, FL-238, x5815, rundenst@cs
Office Hours: Mo: 12:00-1:00am and Fri: 9:00am - 10:00am

TA: (in FL-A20 with phone x5202 during office hours only.)

Maged El Sayed, maged@cs
Office Hours: Mo. 11-12am, Wed. 12-1:00pm noon, and Fr. 10-11am.

Please follow the following protocol:
1. If you have questions, please visit our office hours. We have at least one hour every day of the week.
2. If not possible, then please send your questions via electronic mail to us at cs4432_ta@cs .
3. If that is not possible, then set up an appointment for an alternate time.

Purpose

This course provides a look at the internals of database management systems. In particular, we will learn about what makes a database management system efficient so to be able to extract relevant information out of large data sets. The principles and theories of physical storage management, query processing and optimization, and index structures for relational databases, transaction processing, and concurrency control will be covered. Topics may a selected subset of issues from database recovery, security, client server systems, and even a glimpse from at web database systems. The knowledge gained should be useful not only for building data management type of software but also for most effectively using DBMS technology.

Who should take the course

The intended audience is computer science and computer engineering majors. In this class, you will assume that you already know how to use a database system, such as Oracle or Sequel Server. And, thus that you are familiar with concepts such as the relational data model, relational query languages and database design.

Any student taking this class is expected to have sufficient programming experience. This means that you should be comfortable with at least one high-level programming language, like C++, Java, or C.

Recommended Background

Recommended background: CS4431 or soon to be called CS3431 (in particular knowledge of the relational data model and SQL) and some knowledge of software engineering, such as CS3733.

Text Book:

The course book below will be closely followed in class, and hence you are strongly encouraged to purchase the book. Readings from this book will be covered in the class by the following schedule.

Notes

Optional Readings:

Other references are general database text book which typically cover material from both our WPI Database Systems-I and WPI Database Systems-II courses within one book. Good examples are:

Mailing List and Email Consulting

A group mailing list cs4432@cs.wpi.edu for the class will be used extensively to email updates and clarifications to the class. It is the student's responsibility to make sure that he or she are added to the list.

Course Requirements and Grading

Final grades will be computed based on a total of 100 pts as follows:

Grading policy for each project and homework will be provided at the time of the assignment. All are assumed be done individually by each student, unless otherwise stated.

Exams. The midterm and final exams will be held in class and will be closed book, closed notes. Each exam will test your understanding of the ideas and objectives of the class as covered in the course book, lectures or homework assignments.

Written Homeworks. There will be 4-6 written homework assignments. Written assignments consist of problems from the book, made up problems, or readings from literature.

Projects. There will be 2-3 project assignments. Such assignments may involve programming of some functionality of a database system or study of some existing database system.

How to Retrieve your Grades

We plan to manage this course via MyWPI information portal. This means that you will for example be able to retrieve your grades from myWPI under http://www.wpi.edu/ .

If you have questions re myWPI, the best place you can get information and your questions answered is either from http://www.wpi.edu/+myhelp or via email to myhelp@wpi.edu.

Late Policy

The assignments (written homeworks or projects) should be handed in class on the due day. No late assignments will be accepted, but each student is entitled to at most one free extension of at most 48 hours given special circumstances. Exceptions to this policy will be at the discretion of the instructor. Extensions to due dates, if they occur, will be comunicated through email to the class.

Honor-Code Policy

The basic presumption is that the work you do is your own. Any assistance by another person constitutes a violation of the honor code and will be treated as such. Occasionally, especially when working problem sets or writing programs (but never on exams!), it may be necessary to ask someone for help. You are permitted to do so, provided you meet the following two conditions: Any violation of the WPI's guidelines for academic integrity will result in no credit for the course and referral to the Student Affairs Office for disciplinary action.