CS 33 (Spring 2009): Amit Chakrabarti

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Computer Science 33
Information Systems

Amit Chakrabarti

Spring 2009

[ Announcements | Administrative Basics | Schedule and Homeworks | Grades Database ]

Course Description

In this course we shall study the management of large bodies of data or information. During the first half of the course, we shall study on schemes for the representation, manipulation, and storage of complex information structures as well as algorithms for processing these structures efficiently and for retrieving the information they contain. In particular, we shall spend considerable time on relational algebra, SQL, database normalization, indexing and hashing.

In the second half of the course, we shall study — at a high level — the issues raised when databases are shared by several users and/or several computers. This includes such topics as transaction processing, robustness guarantees against failure, security and data integrity guarantees from unauthorized access, privacy. Time permitting, we might also consider data mining, warehousing and object-oriented schemes for multimedia data.

It is expected that a student who enrols for this course already knows how to program and is comfortable working within a UNIX-like environment. Some degree of mathematical maturity will be required for the more theoretical aspects of the course.

Announcements

Newer announcements are at the top. Think "blogs" or "twitter".

[May 17] The course project page has been updated with further submission instructions.
[Apr 28] Important details about the course project have been announced. Please read them right away, for immediate action is required.
[Apr 6] Homework 1 is ready, and is due in just over one week. Please start working on it ASAP, and have fun!
[Mar 31] On the other hand, quizzes and exams will be entirely hand-written.
[Mar 31] All homework in this course must be submitted electronically; there will be no hand-written submissions. I strongly suggest that you learn to use a suitable typesetting system to prepare the non-programming part of your homework submissions. My personal favorite is LaTeX, which is also the de-facto standard in many academic disciplines, but MS Word or its equivalents would also be okay.
[Mar 30] You will need an account on the CS department UNIX servers for some of your work in this course. Make sure you have one.

Administrative Basics

Important! Please also read and familiarize yourself with the administrative details not covered in the outline below. Pay special attention to the section that describes how the honor code applies to this course; violations of the honor code will be treated seriously.

Lectures

Sudikoff 115 | 10 hour | Mon-Wed-Fri 10:00-11:05, X-hr Thu 12:00-12:50

Instructor

Amit Chakrabarti | Sudikoff 107 | 6-1710 | Office hours: TBA, or by appointment

Teaching Assistants

Qi (Tracy) Gu | Sudikoff 220 | 6-8752 | Office hours: TBA, or by appointment

Textbook (Required)

"Database System Concepts," Fifth Edition.
Avi Silberschatz, Henry F. Korth, S. Sudarshan.

Prerequisites

CS 23

Work

Homeworks, roughly one a week [20 points]
Three in-class quizzes [30 points]
Class project [25 points]
Final exam [25 points]

Please take note of the late homework policy. It will be enforced, strictly.

Schedule and Homeworks

This schedule will be updated frequently. Please check back often, and please remember to hit the RELOAD button to get the latest schedule.

Any part of the schedule that is greyed out is tentative and subject to change.

Lecture Number and Date			Reading Due Before Class	Homework Due	Topics Covered in This Lecture

Week 1	1	Apr 01	——	——	Course overview: Things to think about when designing a database system
Week 1	2	Apr 03	Chapter 1	——	The relational model; The fundamental operators of relational algebra

Week 2	3	Apr 06	2.1 – 2.3	——	Extended relational algebra operators; Null values; DB modification
	4	Apr 08	Chapter 2	——	SQL I: Language basics; The set operations
	5	Apr 10	3.1 – 3.4	——	SQL II: Aggregation; Null values; Nested subqueries

Week 3	6	Apr 13	3.5 – 3.7	HW1	SQL III: Complex queries; Views; DB modification
	7	Apr 15	Chapter 3	——	SQL IV: Types; Integrity constraints; Authorization
		Apr 16 (X-hr)	4.1 – 4.3	——	Quiz 1: Closed notes, in class
	8	Apr 17	4.1 – 4.3	——	Embedded SQL; Dynamic SQL

Week 4	9	Apr 20	Chapter 4	HW2	Overview of relational calculus and QBE
	10	Apr 22	——	——	Overview of the Entity-Relationship model
	11	Apr 24	Chapter 5	——	Normal forms I

Week 5	12	Apr 27	Chapter 6	HW3	Normal forms II
	13	Apr 29	7.1 – 7.5	——	Normal forms III
		Apr 30 (X-hr)	4.1 – 4.3	——	Quiz 2: Closed notes, in class
	14	May 01	Chapter 7	——	Normal forms IV

Week 6	15	May 04	Chapter 8	Project, Stage 1	Stage 1 project presentations
	16	May 06	Chapter 11	——	Application design, Web interfaces, PHP/CGI/Javascript
	17	May 08	12.1 – 12.5	——	Organizing storage; RAID

Week 7	18	May 11	Chapter 12	Project, Stage 2	File structure; Indexing: B and B+ trees
	19	May 13	——	——	Hashing; Trees vs Hashing
	20	May 15	——	——	Indexing wrap-up; Query processing I

Week 8	21	May 18	Chapter 13	Project, Stage 3	Query processing II; Query optimization
	22	May 20	Chapter 14	——	Transactions; Atomicity; Durability
		May 21 (X-hr)	4.1 – 4.3	——	Quiz 3: Closed notes, in class
	23	May 22	15.1 – 15.3	——	Concurrency: The important issues

Week 9	24	May 27	Chapter 15	HW6	Concurrency Control
	25	May 29	Chapter 16	——	Failures; Recovery; Logging
	26	Jun 01	Chapter 17	——	Final project presentations

Homework Submission Form and Grades Database

All homework is to be submitted electronically, using a homework submission form. Click here to get to that form.

The homework submission system is still experimental. Please use it only as instructed, for everyone's safety!