CS 410 Database Systems

Course Syllabus - Fall 2008

Course Instructor	Dr. Chengcui Zhang Email: zhang@cis.uab.edu Web: http://www.cis.uab.edu/zhang Office: CH 127 Phone: (205)-934-8606 Office Hours: Monday 10am-12noon or by appointments.
Teaching Assistants	Liping Zhou zlp@cis.uab.edu (Office hours: Friday 9am-11am)
Course Session	M/W/F   02:00 PM - 02:50 PM    Room CH 405
Course Homepage	http://www.cis.uab.edu/cs410/fall2008/
Prerequisite	CS 303 Algorithms and Data Structures
Description	Overview of database management; data independence; Relational Algebra; normal forms; the three levels of database system architecture; SQL language; security and integrity.
Objectives	To introduce the student to the relational database model, the SQL data manipulation language, DBMS architecture and utilities, database design, and issues of security and integrity.
Textbook	A First Course in Database Systems. 2nd edition. Jeffrey D. Ullman and Jennifer Widom. Prentice Hall. URL: http://www-db.stanford.edu/~ullman/fcdb.html OR Database Systems: The Complete Book (DS:CB), by Hector Garcia-Molina, Jeff Ullman, and Jennifer Widom. 2nd edition. Prentice Hall. URL: http://infolab.stanford.edu/~ullman/dscb.html
Grading Policy	Mid-term Exam                 20% each Homework                      30% overall Class Participation              10% overall Project & demo                  20% Final Exam                      20%  (A: ≥ 90, B: (<90 & ≥80), C: (<80 & ≥70), D: (<70 & ≥65), F: (<65) All tests, lab exams and final exam are mandatory.
Late Submission	1.      All assignments are due at the beginning of class on the due date. Any assignment turned in after this deadline is considered late. Late assignments will lose 10% for every 24-hour period, up to a maximum of 50% (weekends and holidays count as one 24-hour period). 2.      All assignments must be turned in even if they are late. Failure to submit any assignments will result in a grade of ‘F’.
Class Conduct	1.      Students are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner. 2.      Laptops will be allowed only for the purpose of the class. 3.      During a lecture, students may NOT log into a machine and do work that is not directly related to the topic of the current lecture. 4.      Students must turn their cell phones/pagers OFF during the class.
Class Attendance	1.      Attendance is mandatory for the lecture portion of this course. If you know you will be absent for a legitimate reason, let the instructor know. If you are sick, bring a doctor’s excuse or a written university excuse to resolve the absences. An absence has to be resolved as soon as possible - otherwise it will be treated as an unexcused absence. Students will receive a penalty of two percentage points on the final grade for each unexcused absence beyond the third absence (excused or unexcused). 2.      Students auditing this course are expected to attend the lectures. Auditing students with more than three unexcused absences will receive a failing grade. 3.      There will be NO make-ups for the mid-term exam. If you miss the mid-term exam for a legitimate reason, your final exam grade will replace that test grade. If the absence is unexcused, you will be assigned 0 for the test. A student anticipating an excused absence for the final exam should make arrangements in advance to take the exam at another time.

Academic Honesty	Students who plagiarize a computer program (or parts of a program), get others to write a program (or parts of a program), or are found cheating on a quiz/exam, will be reported for academic dishonesty. Anyone who is caught cheating will receive a 0 on a given test or assignment. If a second offense occurs, the student will receive an F in the class. This includes both the provider of the information as well as the receiver of the information. Any student who violates the university's academic honesty policy will be reported for academic discipline. All university and department policies related to students are included here by implication.
Add/Drop Policy	1.      A student can add the course through Aug. 26, 2008 2.      A student can drop the course without paying full tuition by Aug. 26, 2008. 3.      A student can withdraw with a “W” by Oct. 17th, 2008. 4.      For more details about add/drop policies check with Registration/Academic Records.
E-mail	Every student will be required to use his/her official email address (that is, blazerid@uab.edu). New students must login and configure their email addresses. For more details on obtaining a blazerid and configuring email, please see: http://www.uab.edu/blazerid. All email communications will be made using this address. Additional instructions or announcements will be sent by e-mail, so check your mail often - at least twice a day (once in the morning and once at night). Also, check the course webpage for up-to-date information and announcements. The instructor will check email frequently; e-mail is often the best way to contact the instructor.
To Apply for a CIS Account	http://www.cis.uab.edu/it/accountApplication.php
PostgreSQL Quickstart Guide	https://www.cis.uab.edu/postgresql_quickstart

Tentative Schedule for Lectures
Updated Sep. 17^th, 2008

Date	Topics	Comments
Aug 20 Aug 22 Aug 25	Chapter 1 - Introduction Chapter 2 - The E-R Data Model
Aug 27 Aug 29 Sep 1 Sep 3	Chapter 2 - The E-R Data Model (continued) Labor Day Holiday
Sep 5 Sep 8 Sep 10	Finish Chapter 2 (Lecture2, Lecture3) Chapter 3 - The Relational Data Model	Assign Homework 2
Sep 12 Sep 15 Sep 17 Sep 19 Sep 22 Sep 24 Sep 26	Chapter 3 - The Relational Data Model (Lecture4) Lab Session*	Assign Homework 3 Part I, Part II Term Project
Sep 29 Oct 1	Chapter 3 - The Relational Data Model (continued) (Lecture5, Lecture6)	Assign Homework 4 Homework 4
Oct 3 Oct 6	Class Review Chapter 5: Relational Algebra (Lecture7)
Oct 8 Oct 13 Oct 15 Oct 17 Oct 20	Mid-term Exam Review Mid-term Exam Chapter 5: Relational Algebra (Lecture8)
Oct 22 Oct 24 Oct 27 Oct 29 Nov 3 Nov 5	Chapter 6: SQL (Lecture9, Lecture10)	Homework 5
Nov 7 Nov 10 Nov 12 Nov 14	Chapter 7 – Constraints (Lecture11)
Nov 17 Nov 19 Nov 21	Chapter 8 - System Aspects of SQL (Lecture12)
Nov 24 Nov 26~30	Catchup Day NO class	Thanksgiving Holidays
Dec 1 Dec 2 Dec 3	Class Review Project Demo Project Demo Class Review	Last day of class
Dec 5 1:30pm-4:30pm	Final exam	Chapters 1-8 (comprehensive)