COMPSCI 351 Fundamentals of Database Systems - Course Outline

Schedule

First Semester 2018.

For current timetable and rooms please refer to university timetabling system; please
watch out for room changes in the first week of semester.

Assessment

 Tests 20%,
 Assignments: 16% (Fostering Graduate Capability Theme 1: Disciplinary
Knowledge and Practice, Theme 2: Solution Seeking, and Theme 3:
Independence and Integrity),
 Labs 4% (Fostering Graduate Capability Theme 4: Communication and
Engagement, and Theme 5: Social and Environmental Responsibilities),
 Exam 60%. You must pass both exam and practical (combined coursework).

Description

This course is about database management systems. It covers data organisation, query
processing, transactions and advanced database concepts.

Contents

Relational model, Relational Algebra, Relational Calculus, SQL, Entity Relationship

Model, Normalization, Query Processing and Query Optimization, Physical Database
Design, Transaction Management, ACID Transactions, Transaction Isolation Levels,
Database Recovery, Distributed Databases.

Coursework 2018

 Assignment 1 : 8% towards final mark

Due: 23 March 7pm
 Labs: 4% towards final mark.
 Test 1: 10% towards final mark
Date: Thursday, 19 April, 7:30pm, 1h duration, Room TBA
 Assignment 2 :8% towards final mark
Due: 18 May 7pm
 Test 2: 10% towards final mark
Date: Thursday, 31 May, 7:30pm, 1h duration, Room TBA

Exam: 60% towards final mark

Closed Book, 2 hours.

Recommended Textbook

 Database Management Systems, 3ed, Raghu Ramakrishnan and Johannes

Gehrke, McGraw-Hill, 2003.
 Foundations of Database Systems, 4th, Elmasri and Navathe, Addison Wesley,
2004.

Lecturers

 Jörg Wicker
 Gerald Weber - course coordinator (g.weber@auckland.ac.nz)

Learning Outcomes

After successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

 Create conceptual diagrams to concisely model application domains

 Normalize and de-normalize logical database schemata to process frequent
database queries and database updates more efficiently
 Exploit SQL to execute semantically sound database queries and updates
 Apply relational algebra to optimize the evaluation of database queries
 Apply transaction processing concepts to ensure correct concurrent execution of
database programs and recovery from system failures
 Employ and utilize database technology in a larger interconnected enterprise
system context