CSc 207, Databases
Course Outline
Professor: Lin Jensen
e-Mail: ljensen at ubishops.ca
Office: Johnson 115, hours MWF 10:30 -11:00, 1:00-1:30
Course meets: MWF 9:30, in Nicholls 214
Lab on Mondays at 1:30 pm, in Johnson-118
Textbook: "Database Systems, the Complete Book," Hector Garcia-Molina,
Jeffrey Ullman, Jennifer Widom
Calendar description: This course presents data modelling (Entity-Relationship
model, UML, etc..), relational algebra, normalization, SQL language. Implementation
of databases using the relational model is discussed. Object-oriented modelling
and implementation is also introduced.
Other topics include: Concurrency control, transaction processing, client-server
systems, distributed databases, and web-based delivery of data.
Practical work will use [MS Access, Oracle, or mini-SQL.]
In fact: ...will use PostgreSQL and MySQL.
Prerequisite: Computer Science 204
Note: Students may not take this course for credit if they received
credit for either BCS 214 (Jan 98 and onward) or CSC 274.
Topics
- Data modeling
- Entity-relationship modeling
- Relational Database implementations
- Relational Algebra
- Converting E-R models to relations
- Normalization
- SQL
- Examples using PostgreSQL, an open-source client-server dbms
- API-programming using Java, JDBC and the Postgress "driver"
- Transaction processing
- Concurrency control: Locking and timestamping
- Logging and recovery
- Other implemention methods
- Object-oriented
- Object-relational
- Example: Inheritance and Large Object managment in PostgreSQL
- Historical
- Current topics
- Client-server systems
- Distributed databases
- Web-based implementations
- Examples using PERL or PHP and MySQL
- Data Warehouses, integration, and Data Mining
Proposed Grading scheme:
| Lab. assignments |
10% |
| Written assignments |
15% |
| Midterm exam |
25% |
| Final exam * |
50% |
As Departmental policy, you must pass the final exam to pass the course.
Supplemental exams will not be allowed.
* Project option: Occasionally students come up with a programming
project he or she would like to do. In this case, up to 10% of the course
grade (from final exam) may be replaced by a project, to be agreed upon
between the instructor and an individual or a group of at most 3 students.
All students in a group would normally be assigned the same mark. A project
could be designing and implementing a complete datagbase with friendly user
interfaces, and/or providing web-based querying.
To be elegible for a project, a student must get at least 80% in the midterm.
You must still write and pass the final exam.
Back to Lin Jensen
Last updated 10 January 2003