Syllabus

INFS 614-003 (13661): Database Management

George Mason University

Spring, 2008

 

Professor Ken Smith: Email: kps[AT]mitre[DOT]org. I will try to reply promptly.  Office phone -- (703) 983-6115 (at the MITRE Corporation in McLean, VA), and fax number -- 983-3308 (attn Prof. Smith).

Textbooks: Database Management Systems, 3rd ed, Raghu Ramakrishnan and Johannes Gehrke, McGraw-Hill; Oracle9i Programming, 4th edition Rajshekhar Sunderraman, Addison-Wesley ISBN 0-321-19498-5.

Prerequisites: INFS 501 (Discrete mathematics), 515 (Computer architectures/organization), and 590 (Program design / Data structures) or equivalent.  You must either have a grade of B or better in each of these courses, or be able to produce evidence (e.g., transcript, acceptance letter) that one or more of these courses have been waived due to prior work.  If you have specific questions, please meet with your academic advisor.  Failure to satisfy the course prerequisites can affect your ability to register for and stay in this course, to graduate, and be an honor code violation!

Course website: http://ise.gmu.edu/~kps/INFS614  The course will be administered via this website. Homework and announcements will appear here. Read it at least once a week.

Other useful websites: http://labs.ite.gmu.edu  (click on FAQs) for IT&E computing labs, IT&E cluster account, and Oracle DBMS information. http://ise.gmu.edu/~ami/teaching/infs614/current/oracle.html for information on our particular computing environment. 

Lectures: Thursdays from 7:20 till 10:00 pm in Robinson A 247. Office hours before or after class, or by appointment.

Graduate Teaching Assistant:  TBA.

Grading Policy: Approximate weights towards the final grades: Homework -- 20% (Assignment 1: 8%, Assignments 2-5 3% each), Midterm Exam -- 35%, Final Exam (comprehensive) -- 45%.  Late submissions are NOT accepted unless agreed by the instructor before the due time. (A submission is considered late if it is not handed in before lecture begins on the due date.)   All Oracle homework assignments must run properly on the GMU Oracle system in the labs.

Working together vs. individually:  For this class homework & exams require individual work. Study groups are encouraged, however homework solutions and write ups must be the result of individual effort.  Similarly, study groups for examinations are encouraged.  However, both exams are individual effort and closed book.  The GMU Honor Code:  http://www.ise.gmu.edu/Honor.html

Tentative Schedule:

Week

Date

Topic

Text

HW assigned

HW due

1

1/24

Introduction

1

 

 

2

1/31

The ER Model

2

1a

 

3

2/7

The Relational Model

3

1b

1a

4

2/14

Relational Algebra

4.1-4.2

2

1b

5

2/21

Relational Calculus

4.3

3

2

6

2/28

Midterm Review

 

 

3

7

3/6

Midterm Examination

 

1c

 

8

3/13

(Spring Break Holiday)

 

 

 

9

3/20

SQL:  Basics

5.1-5.3

 

 

10

3/27

SQL:  Nested Queries

5.4

4

 

11

4/3

SQL:  Aggregate Queries

 5.5

 

 

12

4/10

Functional Dependencies

19.1-19.3

5

 4

13

4/17

Normalization

19.4-19.6

 

 1c

14

4/24

Topic:  TBA

 

 

 5

15

5/1

Review

 

 

 

16

5/8

Final Examination