CS 4400 Introduction to Database Design
Spring Semester 2003

General course information will be posted in the newsgroup git.cc.class.cs4400 and/or on this class web page. You should read the newsgroup and web page regularly to ensure that you do not miss important information about the course.

NEW STUFF (last updated April 22, 2003)

1. (1/6) Check this section of the web page often (especially close to quizzes and due dates) for updates, information, and assignments!
2. (1/16) Section B: In-class Exercise and Solution 1
3. (1/23) Section B: In-class Exercise 2
4. (1/29) Project Description (pdf)
5. (2/3) Project Statistics (pdf)
6. (2/12) Project Revision (pdf)
7. (2/19) The Complete Revised Project (pdf)
8. (3/8) Section C: Notes on Mapping ER and EER schemas into the Relational Model (Chapter 9.1, 9.2)
9. (3/10) Quiz III has been rescheduled for March 31, 2003
10. (3/17) Exercise on ER to Relational Mapping ( pdf, doc)
11. (3/18) Updated notes on Relational Algebra Concepts ( ppt)
12. (3/18) Oracle-SQL-Java-JDBC Information
13. (3/24) Sample Task Form for Phase II
14. (4/2) Quiz IV has been rescheduled for April 18, 2003
15. (4/8) Key Oracle Functions
16. (4/8) SQL for Web Nerds
17. (4/10) Books Data
18. (4/10) Phase III - Demo Instructions
19. (4/14) Demo Sign-Up Sheets have been posted.
20. (4/14) Downgrade option: If you are doing a heavy weight version but you cannot seem to make it work, you can extract the SQL code and do it in a light weight way. But in that case you need to take the final. This option is ***not*** valid for groups with 4 members!
21. (4/18)Chad Joyce's groups have been reassigned (see list) to other TAs. Please sign up for your demo with your new TA.
22. (4/22) Section C: Phase III Update!
    • The due date for projects for those groups that had the phase 2 returned later will be Wednesday midnight. (Most affected group members were in Navathe's section)
    • For Navathe's section, a provision is made to allow students from the 4-member groups to take the final exam if they wish. In such cases, the average of the 4 quizzes will be computed and if the final quiz grade is higher than this average, then the total quiz grade will be computed by including the final. (Breakdown will still be 60% quizzes, 40% project). Note that if the final grade is lower than the average, the final is ignored.
    • If you wish to take the final, you should sign up for it by signing up on the sheet placed on Prof. Navathe's office by end of day Monday 28th. The final is at 2:50 on Wednesday 30th.

TEXT:

Fundamentals of Database Systems, 3rd edition, Elmasri & Navathe, Addison-Wesley, 2000

NOTES:

Professor Leo Mark's Course Notes and Slides: click here
Professor Sham Navathe's Course Notes and Slides: click here

PROJECT:

You will design and implement a database application using the ORACLE relational database system available on ACME. The Project can be done in groups of 3 or 4 students. We will follow a typical database design methodology for this project. Notes describing the methodology wil be available via the class web page. The project will consist of 3 phases (deliverables) as well as a final demonstration to the TA. Phase I and Phase II of the project are each worth 10% credit. Credit for phase III depends on the implementation option you choose.

1. Project Description (pdf)
2. Project Statistics (pdf)
3. Project Revision (pdf)
4. The Complete Revised Project (pdf)
5. Book Data
6. Phase III - Demo Instructions
7. Demo Sign-Up Sheets have been posted.
8. Downgrade option: If you are doing a heavy weight version but you cannot seem to make it work, you can extract the SQL code and do it in a light weight way. But in that case you need to take the final. This option is ***not*** valid for groups with 4 members!
9. (4/18)Chad Joyce's groups have been reassigned (see list) to other TAs. Please sign up for your demo with your new TA.
10. (4/22) Section C: Phase III Update!
    • The due date for projects for those groups that had the phase 2 returned later will be Wednesday midnight. (Most affected group members were in Navathe's section)
    • For Navathe's section, a provision is made to allow students from the 4-member groups to take the final exam if they wish. In such cases, the average of the 4 quizzes will be computed and if the final quiz grade is higher than this average, then the total quiz grade will be computed by including the final. (Breakdown will still be 60% quizzes, 40% project). Note that if the final grade is lower than the average, the final is ignored.
    • If you wish to take the final, you should sign up for it by signing up on the sheet placed on Prof. Navathe's office by end of day Monday 28th. The final is at 2:50 on Wednesday 30th.

GUI/JDBC Phase III Option - 20% credit: We will use the embedded SQL feature of ORACLE, called JDBC, which allows us to embed SQL statements in a Java program.

Lightweight SQLPLUS Phase III Option - 5% credit: We will use the SQLPLUS feature of ORACLE, which allows us to execute stand alone SQL statements.

COURSE CONTENT:

In this course we introduce the fundamental concepts necessary for the design and use of modern database systems. We examine the concepts in the order that we encounter them in the actual database design process. We start with the problem of conceptually representing data that is to be stored in a database. From there, we see how the data in a conceptual data model can be converted to a database specific model (e.g., the relational data model). We also discuss various forms for relations that possess good properties. We see how to use the relational database language SQL to define the relations and to write SQL statements to insert, delete, retrieve and update the data. We also examine some of the fundamental storage structures that are used in relational database systems. We end the course with a discussion of some advanced topics in the database management area.

GRADING:

Option I	4 quizzes 15% (each)	Project (gui/jdbc) - 40%
Option II	4 quizzes 15% (each)	final exam - 15%	Project (lightweight) - 25%

The Final exam will be held during the scheduled final exam period.