The University of Western Ontario
London, Canada
Course Description
Students
will study advanced database topics. As each topic is covered, we will review
traditional (relational) databases, and then apply and extend the ideas to
distributed and object-oriented databases. The topics covered are database
system architecture, data modeling and database design, design of query
languages, query execution techniques, indexing and query optimization,
transactions, concurrency control, recovery, and database security. As well,
XML data models and XQuery will be covered.
Prerequisites,
Computer
Science 307a/b, Computer Science 319a/b
Unless you have either
the requisites for this course or written special permission from your Dean to
enroll in it, you will be removed from this course and it will be deleted from
your record. This decision may not be appealed. You will receive no adjustment
to your fees in the event that you are dropped from a course for failing to
have the necessary prerequisites.
Instructor
Name: Sylvia Osborn
Office
MC378
Office Hours:
contact me after class or by email for an appointment
Phone 519-661-3992
E-Mail sylvia at csd dot uwo dot ca
Textbooks
There is no recommended text book. A number of text books
may be put on reserve in the Taylor library.
Lecture Notes
The lecture notes will be in powerpoint. They will be
available on a password-protected web site
Course Website: http://www.csd.uwo.ca/courses/CS4411b
Lecture Topics
For
most of the following topics, we will cover the topic first as it relates to
relational databases, then to distributed databases and possibly to XML or
other types of databases. XML.
·
Introduction
·
Database Architecture
Class
Schedule
Mondays,
12:30 – 2:30, Thursdays 1:30-2:30 in NC285
TA
Consulting Hours (no TA)
Computing
Facilities
For
senior courses: Each student will be given an
account on the Computer Science Department senior undergraduate computing
facility, GAUL. In accepting the
Email Contact
We occasionally need to send email messages to the
class or to students individually. Email is sent to the UWO email address as
assigned to you by Information Technology Services (ITS), i.e. your email
address @uwo.ca. It is your responsibility to read this email on a frequent and
regular basis, or to have it forwarded to an alternative email address if
preferred. See the ITS website for directions on forwarding
email.
However,
note that email at ITS (your UWO account) and other email providers may have
quotas or limits on the amount of space they dedicate to each account.
Unchecked email may accumulate beyond those limits and you may be unable to
retrieve important messages from your instructors. Losing email is not an
acceptable excuse for not knowing about the information that was sent.
Student
Evaluation
There will be a
project, worth 30%, presentation worth 5%, two assignments worth 10% each, a
midterm test worth 15%, and a final exam worth 30%.
If for any reason the assignment schedule given
above cannot be adhered to, the assignment marks will be pro-rated.
Every effort will be made to have assignments
marked and handed back within 3 weeks of the handin
date, preferably sooner. Midterm exam marks will be available within 2 weeks of
the exam at the latest.
Academic Accommodation for
Medical Illness
·
for
work representing 10% or more of the overall grade in the course:
If you are unable to meet a course requirement due to illness or other
serious circumstances, you must provide valid medical or other supporting
documentation to your Dean's office as soon as possible and contact your
instructor immediately. It is the
student's responsibility to make alternative arrangements with their instructor
once the accommodation has been approved and the instructor has been informed.
In the event of a missed final exam, a "Recommendation of Special
Examination" form must be obtained from the Dean's Office immediately. For
further information please see:
http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/handbook/appeals/accommodation_medical.pdf
A student requiring academic accommodation due to
illness should use the Student Medical Certificate when visiting an off-campus
medical facility or request a Record's Release Form (located in the Dean's
Office) for visits to Student Health Services. The form can be found here: https://studentservices.uwo.ca/secure/medical_document.pdf
Assignment
and Exam / Test /
Quiz Schedule
|
Due Date |
Item |
Description |
Weight |
|
Feb. 6, 2012 |
Assignment 1 |
Review of a research paper |
10% |
|
March 1, 2012 |
In-class test |
Midterm on initial concepts |
15% |
|
March 12, 2012 |
Assignment 2 |
XML and XQuery |
10% |
|
March 19, 2012 |
Project proposal |
Topic and initial sources |
4% |
|
Final week of class |
Presentation |
Of your project |
5% |
|
April 9, 2012 |
Final project |
Written report on your
project |
26% |
|
Final exam period |
Final exam |
2 hours |
30% |
Note: these dates may change.
Students requesting a Special Midterm Exam for religious
reasons must have notified the course instructor and filed documentation with
their Dean's office at least 2 weeks prior to the Midterm Exam.
If you miss the Midterm Exam for any other reason, follow the procedure
for Academic Accommodation for Medical Illness given above. If accommodation is
approved by your Dean’s office, your Final Exam mark will be
reweighted to include the weight of the Midterm Exam.
Assignments
Submission of
Assignments: Assignments will be submitted on line. Assignment Submission
Forms, should accompany all submissions. The final project will be submitted on
paper.
Late penalties
will be given on the assignments.
Extensions: If you have serious medical or compassionate grounds for an extension,
you should follow the procedure for Academic Accommodation for Medical Illness
as given above.
Please
contact the course instructor if you require material in an alternate format or
if you require any other arrangements to make this course more accessible to
you. You may also wish to contact Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD)
at 661-2111 x 82147 for any specific question regarding an accommodation.
Ethical
Conduct
Scholastic offences are taken seriously and students are directed to read
the appropriate policy, specifically, the definition of what constitutes a
Scholastic Offence, at the following Web site: http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/handbook/appeals/scholoff.pdf.
Plagiarism: Students must write their essays and assignments in their own words.
Whenever students take an idea, or a passage from another author, they must acknowledge
their debt both by using quotation marks where appropriate and by proper
referencing such as footnotes or citations. Plagiarism is a major academic
offence.
All assignments are individual assignments. You
may discuss approaches to problems among yourselves; however, the actual
details of the work (assignment coding, answers to concept questions, etc.)
must be an individual effort.
The standard departmental penalty for assignments that are judged to be the result of academic dishonesty is, for the student's first offence, a mark of zero for the assignment, with an additional penalty equal to the weight of the assignment also being applied. You are responsible for reading and respecting the Computer Science Department's policy on Scholastic Offences and Rules of Ethical Conduct .
The University of Western Ontario uses software for
plagiarism checking. Students may be required to submit their written work and
programs in electronic form for plagiarism checking.
All required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity
review to the commercial plagiarism detection software under license to the
University for detection of plagiarism. All papers
submitted for such checking will be included as source documents in the
reference database for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of papers
subsequently submitted to the system. Use of the service is subject to the licensing
agreement, currently between The University of Western Ontario and Turnitin.com
(http://www.turnitin.com/).