CS561. Advanced Topics in Database Systems
Home Textbook & Reading List
Grading
Project
Schedule Additional Resources


Class Meetings

         Semester: Spring-2016
         Room: SL-104 (Salisbury Laboratories-104)
         Date/Time: Thursday, 6:00pm - 8:50pm.
     

Instructor/Office Hours
          Prof. Mohamed Eltabakh, FL-235, meltabakh@cs.wpi.edu  
         Office Hours:  By Email.

TA/Office Hours
      Chong Zhou: czhou2@wpi.edu
      Office Hours:  Monday & Friday,  2:00pm - 3:00pm     In ZooLab, Fuller Building  

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. Around 60% of the lectures will be covered by the instructor. Each student is expected to present one paper in a certain topic. Students will also form terms of two to work on the course projects. 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 covered material. A good project would possibly result in writing a publishable paper.


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.

 

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.