CSCI 765

INTRODUCTION TO DATABASE SYSTEMS

INSTRUCTOR

• Name: Anne Denton
• Office: IACC 258 A9
  
• Phone: 231-6748
• E-mail: anne.denton@ndsu.edu
• Office hours: TR 9:30-11:00
  

LECTURES

• TR 2-3:15
• IACC 106
  

TEXTBOOK

Raghu Ramakrishnan and Johannes Gehrke, "Database Management Systems," 3rd Edition, McGraw Hill, 2004.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Basic database concepts, models, management facilities, data structures, storage structures, data definition languages, data manipulation languages, normalization, operator implementation algorithms, transactions, correctness, reliability, distribution, performance analysis.

COURSE OBJECTIVE

The objective of this course is to give students a firm grounding in in fundamental aspects of database design and database management systems, and to introduce the major new developments in databases and data mining.

COURSE CONTENT

Week 1	21 Aug	Concepts of Database Systems, Data Warehousing, and Data Mining
Week 2	28 Aug	Entity-Relationship Model and Relational Model (Topic 1)
Week 3	4 Sept	Relational algebra / SQL (Topic 2)
Week 4	11 Sept	Data Storage, Indexes, External Hashing (Topic 3)
Week 5	18 Sept	Exam 1 (21 Sept)
Week 6	25 Sept	Query Evaluation (Topic 4)
Week 7	2 Oct	Functional and Multi-valued Dependencies, Normal Forms (Topic 5)
Week 8	9 Oct	Transaction Management and Concurrency Control (Topic 6)
Week 9	16 Oct	Parallel and Distributed Databases (Topic 7)
Week 10	23 Oct	Exam 2 (26 Oct)
Week 11	30 Oct	Semi-structured Data, Text Data, and XML (Topic 8)
Week 12	6 Nov	Data Warehouses, Spatial and Other Specialized Databases (Topic 9)
Week 13	13 Nov	Data Mining (Topic 10)
Week 14	20 Nov	Exam 3 (21 Nov)
Week 15	27 Nov	Project Presentations
Week 16	4 Dec	Project Presentations
Finals Week		Optional Final Exam Friday, 15 December 10:30 - 12:30 (NDSU-wide schedule)

PREREQUISITES

CSci 366 or graduate standing.

GRADING

3 Exams	100	300
5 Homework Assignments	20	100
Project	100	100
1 Optional Final Exam	100	100

The cut-off will not be higher than 90% for A, 80% for B, 70% for C, and 60% for D.

Students who take the final exam (defined by entering the examination room on the given day) will be
graded out of 600 points.  Students who chose not to take the exam will be graded out of 500 points.

With the goal of saving trees, please send me an e-mail by 12 Dec if you know that you will not
take the final exam.

EXAMS

Exam 1	Basics of Database Systems	21 Sept
Exam 2	Advanced Topics in Database Systems	26 Oct
Exam 3	Modern Developments in Database Systems	21 Nov

PROJECT

For the project you will develop an application that uses the concepts of the course to solve problem that has not been solved before.  You are required to address 3 out of the 10 major topic areas (see above, Topic 1-10). 

• All combinations of topics are valid (the only constraint being that there must be at least one topic >3, i.e., the combination "topics 1, 2, 3" does not qualify). 
  
• It is required that you combine topics into a coherent project.  
  
• It is also required that you implement a prototype of your proposed system.
• At least one of the parts of your project idea must be solved by your implementation.
• You must motivate the novelty of at least some aspect of your project
• If the implementation of your novel idea exceeds the scope of the project you should describe your idea and implement some other (or partial) aspect of your proposed system.
  

Examples of possible projects are

1. Internet database
• Design using ER modeling and conversion to a relational model (topic 1)
• Implement using SQL (topic 2) [implementation]
  
• Develop an effective way to remove performance bottlenecks at the application level, while ensuring appropriate concurrency control (topic 6)
  
2. Data integration from multiple internet databases (e.g., bioinformatics) into a data warehouse
   
• Develop application to extract data from multiple internet databases (topic 7) [implementation]
• Organize in hypercube structure as used for data warehouses (topic 9)
• Store within relational database (topic 2)
  
3. Data mining of XML-structured data
• Assemble repository of XML data (topic 8)
• Develop data mining application (topic 10) [implementation]
  
• Improve performance through indexing (topic 3)
  
4. Many other topic combinations can lead to coherent projects.
   

ASSIGNMENTS AND PROJECT REPORT

Assignments directly relate to the topics selected for the project.  Hence, assignments typically cover different content for different students.

Assignment 1	Describe a coherent project and how it addresses 3 of the topics.  This introduction also has to address why your proposed project is encountered in the real world and why no existing standard solution solves it.	14 Sept
Assignment 2	2-3 page description of your solution related to the first project topic.	28 Sept
Assignment 3	As assignment 2 for the second of your topics.	13 Oct
Assignment 4	As assignment 2 for the third of your topics.	10 Nov
Assignment 5	Documented implementation (Java, SQL, and/or similar) related to at least one of your topics or a combination of your topics. Presentation note: Your presentation has to include evidence of the functioning of your code.  Examples Web interface: Present interface in the presentation Data mining: Present plots that summarize the results you got	Due together with project report on 28 Nov Please provide code or link to code
Project report	10-15 page discussion of the complete application. May utilize or replace any of the previous documents.	28 Nov

FINAL EXAM

Following the vote in class, the final exam will be an in-class exam at the regular final exam time period.
The final exam itself counts for 100 points out of 600 total points possible.  It also acts as a make-up exam.

Exam 1	Exam 2	Exam 3	Assignments	Project	Final exam
Total number of points 100 Cutoff for A: 85 Cutoff for B: 70 Makeup policy: MAX(exam 1 grade, 3*final exam part 1 grade)			Total number of points 100 Cutoff for A: 90 Cutoff for B: 80	Total number of points 100 Cutoff for A: 90 Cutoff for B: 80	Total number of points in part 1: 33 1/3 Cutoff corresponding exam 1
	Total number of points 100 Cutoff for A: 80 Cutoff for B: 65 Makeup policy: MAX(exam 2 grade, 3*final exam part 2 grade)				Total number of points in part 2: 33 1/3 Cutoff corresponding exam 2
		Total number of points 100 Cutoff to be determined Makeup policy: MAX(exam 1 grade, 3*final exam part 1 grade)			Total number of points in part 3: 33 1/3 Cutoff corresponding exam 3

PLEASE NOTE: Any student with disabilities or who needs special accommodations in this course is invited to share these concerns or requests with the instructor as soon as possible.
PLEASE NOTE: All work in this course must be completed in a manner consistent with NDSU University Senate Policy, Section 335: Code of Academic Responsibility and Conduct (http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/policy/335.htm).

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