COM3315 Database Systems

Spring 2002 Course Syllabus and Calendar

Professor Futrelle -- College of Computer Science, Northeastern U., Boston, MA

(Version of 3/16/2002 -- there will be further updates)

PRELIMINARY VERSION -- VARIOUS PORTIONS MISSING

In the calendar below, the final exam period, June 3-8, is marked in green. You can also get the full Northeastern University Academic Calendar, which is a PDF document, via the Registrar's website.

     March 2002
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
                1  2
 3  4  5  6  7  8  9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31

     April 2002
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
    1  2  3  4  5  6
 7  8  9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30

      May 2002
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
          1  2  3  4
 5  6  7  8  9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31
     June 2002
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
                   1
 2  3  4  5  6  7  8
 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30

Note: The reading assignments in your textbook, listed throughout the syllabus below, should be completed before coming to the class meeting they apply to. See the links page for material related to the topics below that you might find useful.


Week 1 -- Introduction; Using Oracle; Relational Algebra 1

Tues. March 26th
Introduction to the course and topics. Chapter 1
Database Basics. Secs. 2.1-2.4
Using your Oracle account
Introduction to relational algebra. Secs. 2.5-2.6
Week 2 -- Relational algebra 2; SQL basics

Tues. April 2nd
Relational algebra, further topics Secs. 2.7-2.10
SQL basics: Table creation, loading. Appendix A. Secs. 3.1-3.3
SQL for Oracle on Unix, useful utilities
Assignment #1 due, on relational algebra
Week 3 -- SQL queries

Tues. April 9th
Querying a database using SQL. Secs. 3.4-3.11
Week 4 -- Database design using the Entity-Relation Approach

Tues. April 16th
The Entity-Relation description and design process. Secs. 6.1-6.4
Assignment #2 due, on SQL queries
Week 5 -- Database design using Normalization

Tues. April 23rd
The concept of functional dependence. Secs. 6.5-6.6
The most important normal forms. Secs. 6.7-6.8
Normalization as a method of designing databases. Secs. 6.8-6.9
Assignment #3 due, on Entity-Relation design
Week 6 -- Integrity, Views and Indexing

Tues. April 30th
Database Integrity and Views. Chapter 7
Indexing for efficient access. Secs. 8.1-8.3
Review for Midterm
Assignment #4 due, on Normalization for database design
Week 7 -- Indexing. The Midterm Exam

Tues. May 7th
Finish discussion of indexing. Secs. 8.4-8.6
Midterm Exam, covering material through Week 5
Week 8 -- Program access to DBs. SQLJ for Oracle

Tues. May 14th
Brief introduction to Java with examples
SQLJ for program access
Week 9 -- Query processing

Tues. May 21st
Query processing; internals and efficiency. Chapter 9
Week 10 -- Course wrap-up and review for the Final Exam

Tues. May 28th
Summary of the course
Review for the Final Exam
 
Week 11 -- Final Exam Week

FINAL EXAM WEEK Monday June 3rd through Saturday June 8th

Back to COM3315 Spring 2002 homepage Back to Professor Futrelle's homepage