CS561.
Advanced Topics in Database Systems
Class Meetings
Term: Spring-2012
Room: SL-407
(Salisbury Laboratories-407)
Date/Time: Tuesday and
Thursday, 4:00pm - 5:20pm.
Instructor/Office
Hours
Prof.
Mohamed Eltabakh, FL-235, meltabakh@cs.wpi.edu
Office Hours:
Tuesday: 2:00pm - 3:00pm, Thursday: 2:00pm - 3:00pm
Course
Overview (Catalog Info)
Database systems provide an efficient and convenient environment for
processing disk-resident data. Typical Database Management Systems
(DBMSs) provide features such as indexing structures, concurrency
control, recovery control, transactional models, and query
optimization. Typical DBMSs have been designed to address the
requirements of retail- and banking-like systems. However, this narrow
view of DBMSs has changed significantly over the last two decades to
include emerging applications from various domains. In this course we
will cover several of advanced techniques in the areas of large-scale
data analytics (Hadoop and MapReduce infrastructures), scientific data
management, distributed and parallel databases, data integration, and
cloud computing. We will also cover active databases, object-relational
and semi-structured data models, and OLAP techniques. The exact subset
of topics will vary depending of the students' interest and
availability of time.
Course
Objectives
There are several objectives from this course including:
1- Learning state-of-art techniques in database systems
and information management that you can apply to your future research
and/or your practical work.
2- Learning how the prepare and present technical
papers which is an essential skill for students and researchers.
3- Learning how to review papers. Reviewing
technical and scientific papers is a skill that you need to develop.
Throughout this course, you will review several papers.
4- Working in a semester-long project that can
potentially lead to a publication.
Coursework
The course is organized as
series of seminars presented by the instructor and students. The
instructor will present several lectures covering the state-of-art
techniques in various topics. Each student is expected to present two
to three papers in a certain topic. For a given lecture, all
non-presenting students are expected to read the presented paper and to
submit a one-page review that highlights (1) the main idea of the
paper, (2) two/three strong points, and (3) two/three weak points of the paper.
Students will also form terms of two to work on a semester-long
project. An ideal project will involve implementing some of the
techniques covered in class along with some modifications/extensions to
them, or performing comparative study between alternative techniques.
However, the project is not limited to the cover material. A good
project would possibly result in writing a publishable paper. More details can be found here.
Prerequisites
Students
are expected to have strong background and knowledge of relational
database management systems. Prior courses in databases, e.g., CS542, CS4432, or
equivalent courses, are recommended. Also students are expected to have
strong skills in programming languages such as C or Java.
Course Load & Grading Policy
This course will have 2 presentations per student over
the entire semester, one long-term project, plus a final exam. The
final exam is based on what the instructor will present in class. The
course grades are divided as shown below. The items listed below are
discussed in more detail here.
| Items |
Percentage |
| Presentations |
25%
|
Reviews & Participation
|
15%
|
Semester-Long Project
|
35%
|
| Homeworks |
10%
|
Final Exam
|
15%
|
WPI
E-System
In
addition to this website, the course is also available at blackboard.wpi.edu.
Discussion
Board
Please use the discussion board available at blackboard.wpi.edu
for any course-related discussion and exchange of emails.