CSci 5708 : Architecture and Implementation of Database Management Systems, Spring 2005

T Th, 4:00pm-5:15pm, MechE 212

Instructor and TA

Role

Name

Office Hours

Phone

Email

Instructor

Prof. Shashi Shekhar

EE/CS 5-203,TTh 3:00-4:00pm

624-8307

shekhar@cs.umn.edu

TA

Betsy George

EE/CS 2-209, M T 10:30-11:30am

626-7512

bgeorge@cs.umn.edu

Schedule: lecture, homework and examination schedule
Internal Web Pages: Main (http://www.cs.umn.edu/~shekhar/5708), Class Notes, homeworks ,
Instructor Announcements, TA Announcements , Teams .

Text Book: Elmasri, Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, 4rd, Addison Wesley, ISBN 0321122267.

Topics: Components of a Database System, File Structures, Access Methods, Query Processing and Optimization, Transactions, Concurrency Control, Recovery, Distributed Databases, Security, Trends (data mining, XML, SQL 2003).

Examinations and Assignments: There are 4 homeworks , some of which may require programming. Form groups of two to submit homeworks. All assignments must have your name, student ID and course name/ number. UNITE students should have their homeworks postmarked by this date and persuade their site coordinators to fax it to "114 Lind Hall" UNITE office the same day.

The weighting scheme used for grading is: Midterm exams - 30%, Final exam - 40%, Assignments - 30%. There are two necessary conditions for passing this class:1) Submission of all assignments, and 2)scoring >= 50% on the final examination. Students are responsible for all material covered in lectures, as well as that specifically mentioned as part of the supplementary reading assignments. Examinations will heavily emphasize conceptual understanding of the material. Sample examinations from last offerings are available in MS WORD format: SampleMQ.doc, SampleFinal.doc

Late Submission Policy: Assignments must be handed in at the beginning of the class on the specified due date (Tueday of designated week). Late homeworks should be submitted to the TA in email (postscript, pdf, text or MS Word doc files) as well as on paperin TA's personal office (EE/CS 5-202). DO NOT submit assignments in EE/CS 5-203. A penalty of 30% will be deducted from score for the first 24-hour period your assignment is late. A penalty of 70% will be deducted from score for >= 24-hour period. Weekend days will be counted. For assignments, you are encouraged to type your answers. For programming assignments you are encouraged to use pretty printers to make your listings more readable. Following is (roughly) the weight distribution for laboratory problems: Correctness - 60%, Test Results Summary - 10%, Code readability including comments - 15%, Approach and Report - 15%. Report should discuss assumptions and findings.

Cheating/ Collaboration: Getting help from services like general debugging service (GDS), web-sites (e.g. cheaters.com), copying someone else's assignment, or the common solution of written or programming assignments will be considered cheating. The purpose of assignments is to provide individual feedback as well to get you thinking. Interaction for the purpose of understanding a problem is not considered cheating and will be encouraged. However, the actual solution to problems must be one's own.

Helpful Comments: This class is Very Interesting and useful. We will uncover concepts underlying database design, querying and administration. Practitioners may be invited as guest lecturer during discussion of topics. To get full benefit out of the class you have to work regularly. Read the textbook regularly and start working on the assignments soon after they are handed out. Plan to spend at least 10 hrs a week on this class doing assignments or reading.

Good Luck, and Welcome to CSci 5708!
Shashi Shekhar