Principles and Internals of Database Systems

Course
Course Catalog URL: 
https://catalog.iastate.edu/azcourses/com_s/
Identifier: 
COM S 461
  1. Credits and contact hours: 3 credits, 4 contact hours
  2. Instructor’s or course coordinator’s name: Ying Cai
  3. Text book, title, author, and year: None required
  4. Other supplemental materials: Database Management Systems, 3rd edition, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke.; Fundamental of Database Systems, 5th Edition, R. Elmasri and S.B. Navathe

Specific course information

  1. Brief description of the content of the course: Database design including entity-relationship model, relational data model, and non-relational data models, data dependency, and normalization. Database management including physical storage, access methods, query processing, and transaction management. Database systems of special purposes such as spatial databases, mobile object databases, and multimedia databases. Introduction to current database research such as cloud data management and Internet information retrieval.
  2. Prerequisites or co-requisites: COM S 311, ENGL 250, SP CM 212
  3. Required, elective, or selected elective? Selected Elective

Specific goals for the course

  1. Specific outcomes of instruction:
  • Have understanding of good database design techniques and database theories, including conceptual database designs, and functional dependencies and normalization.
  • Have understanding of designs of important components of large-scale database management software, including indexing, query evaluation and optimization, and transaction management. (6)
  • Have experience working with popular database system software.
  • Have an ability to apply knowledge in database design and database application development to address real-world needs for efficient data storage and retrieval.
  • Have experience working in a team project to improve communication skills, project management skills, software development skills, and presentation skills. Projects must serve a local community or the society at large, or a scientific community. (3, 5, 6)
  • Have understanding of a few advanced topics in databases for continuing professional development.

Brief list of topics to be covered

  • Database design
  • Relational data model, functional dependencies, and normalization
  • Database application development and database security
  • Query languages: relational algebra and calculus
  • Query processing, query optimization and indexing
  • Transaction processing
  • Object relational mapping
  • Advanced topics:
    • Big data and mining tools
    • Graph databases