CMSC 724: Advanced Topics in Database Systems

Time-stamp: "2002-01-30 17:31:41 chaw"

News: Final exam posted.
Class meetings: Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:30pm-4:45pm in CLB 0102. (Students are also encouraged (but not required) to attend the DB Chat meetings.)
Class newsgroup: csd.cmsc724 (local to umd.edu); required reading. Please use this newsgroup (instead of email) for questions, comments, and discussions on class-related topics unless you wish to keep your comments private.
Instructor: Sudarshan S. Chawathe
- Email: chaw@cs.umd.edu
  Please put the string "CMSC724" near the beginning of the Subject header for all class-related email. Email that is poorly written risks being ignored.
- Office hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:30pm-3:30pm (the hour before class) or by appointment. Please follow the instructions to schedule an appointment.
- Contact information: finger chaw@cs.umd.edu
Description: The primary goal of this course is to serve as a stepping stone from database coursework to database research. A secondary goal is to cover advanced topics in database systems. The topics this semester will have three foci: (1) database theory and its applications, (2) semistructured data management, and (3) data mining. We may also cover some material on traditional database systems (e.g., query processing, concurrency control, recovery) and information retrieval (e.g., XML indexing, subscriptions). The textbooks should give you a rough idea of the kind of material we will cover.
This course requires a substantial semester-long project. The project must include a nontrivial implementation and must culminate in a project demonstration and a submission of source code and a project report. For an A grade, the project work and report should be comparable in quality to a good workshop paper (and hopefully better). I will help in the selection and conduct of the project; however, primary responsibility for the project lies with the students (who are responsible for scheduling meetings to ensure their work is on track). The projects will be individual work by default; however, I may permit group projects if there is a compelling case for them. The exams will be take-home (and thus open book). The homeworks will most likely be a mix of programming and written work.
Please note that this is an advanced course. Students are assumed to have a good Computer Science and Database background (or the ability to quickly assimilate required material). They are also assumed to be capable of quickly reading and understanding a substantial amount of material on diverse topics, ranging in accessibility from textbooks to papers that are not quite crystal clear.
Readings:
- Reading List and Schedule (will be updated): HTML; PDF; PostScript.
- Required Textbooks:
  - Data on the Web: From Relations to Semistructured Data and XML by Abiteboul, Buneman, and Suciu. Morgan Kaufmann, 2000.
  - Foundations of Databases by Abiteboul, Hull, and Vianu. Addison Wesley, 1995.
  - Data Mining: Concepts and Techniques by Han and Kamber. Morgan Kaufmann, 2001.
Homeworks and Exams.
- Homework 1: PDF; PostScript. Due at the beginning of class on Thursday, 01 February, 2001. As you can tell from the format, this homework is a verbatim copy of the final exam I used for my CMSC 424 class last semester. Assuming you have the necessary background (424 being a prerequisite), it should not take you more than 2-3 hours to finish this two hour exam (a little slack to make up for knowledge that has become rusty over time).
- Midterm exam: PDF; PostScript.
- Final exam: PDF; PostScript.
Grading: Grading is based on class participation (10%), homeworks (20%), a mid-term exam (15%), a final exam (20%), and a project (35%).
Policies: Please make sure you read and follow the class policy.

Computer Science Database Group

Sudarshan S. Chawathe