CS1555/1565: Database Systems

Instructor: Prof. S. K. Chang
Office: 215 Mineral Industries Building (MIB), University of Pittsburgh
Telephone: 412-624-8423 Fax: 412-624-8465
E-mail: chang@cs.pitt.edu
Office Hours: 3pm to 4pm TuTh


TA: Thalis A. Kalfigopoulos
Office: 218 Eberly Hall
Telephone: 412-624-8815
E-mail: thalis@cs.pitt.edu
Office Hours: 5:30pm to 6:30pm Tu Th
Grader for: Midterm, Quiz 2, Ex. 6
Consultant for: Project 1
TA: Lily Zhao
Office: 218 MIB
Telephone: 412-624-8815
E-mail: lilyzhao@cs.pitt.edu
Office Hours: 2pm to 5pm Th
Grader for: Ex 4, Ex. 5, Final Exam
Consultant for: Project 2


Time and Classroom: 4pm to 5:20pm TuTh, 346 Eberly

Lab: 230 Lawrence Hall, University of Pittsburgh. Students registered for the current term can use this lab with valid IDs.

Textbook: Fundamentals of Database Systems, Elmasri and Navathe, Benjamin Cummings, most recent edition (EN).

Oracle CD: You can obtain a copy of Personal Oracle8 from the CIS Software Licensing Services in Room 203, 2nd floor, of Bellfield Hall, University of Pittsburgh across the street from Hines Chapel. You will need to take a Pitt ID, your local address, and your local phone number. It will cost you $5 or $5.35 with tax. The book store does not carry a student version of the software.

Recommended References: (1) C. J. Date, An Introduction to Database Systems, Sixth Edition, Addison-Wesley, 1995 (CJD).

(2) Learning SQL, Wellesley Software, Prentice-Hall, 1991 (ISBN 0-13-528704-9). (SQL will be covered in class, so this book is really optional)

(3) Oracle Programming - A Primer, Rajshekhar Sunderraman, Addison-Wesley, 1998 (RS).

Classnotes: Classnotes will be available at http://www.cs.pitt.edu/~chang/156/156syl.html.

Grading: Grades are based upon exercises (40%), midterm exam (25%) and quizzes (10%) and final exam (25%). There will be six sets of exercises of 5% each, and a mini-project of 10%, and exercises generally require access to PC. In case we cannot have mini-project due to system problems, that 10% will be added to the final exam which then becomes 35%.

Synopsis: This course is intended to cover both the theoretical concepts of modern database systems, and the practical usage of commercial database systems. Students will learn the fundamentals of relational database, SQL, hierarchical database, network database, user interface to database, hypertext and multimedia database concepts, object-oriented database concepts and WWW database programming using WebBaseTM.

For Students who want to register: If you are a senior undergraduate CS major student, the instructor will first consider you to register, even if the section is closed. Next to be considered will be undergraduate student of junior standing, or graduate student, or students from another department. In all cases, please attend the first lecture so that your name can be added to a waiting list. If space becomes available, you will be let in according to above order, on a first-come-first-serve basis. The final decision will be made on Week-2-Lec-2.

If you are a graduate student, you are required to turn in a project report and give a five-minute project presentation and a live demo. If you are an undergraduate student, you are required to turn in a single-page readme file and give a live demo, but not required to turn in a project report.

Course Registration: After you have obtained official approval to register for this course, you should also fill out a registration form, which will enable you to receive e-mail messages from the instructor concerning deadlines and projects, and to retreive your grades using your name and a password selected by you. Course registration is also necessary in order to participate in the discussion group.

Discussion Gruop: For project discussion, you can participate in the discussion group.

DateTopicChapters CoveredExercise Due
Week-1-Lec-1Introduction to Basic ConceptsC1 (C1)-
Week-1-Lec-2Database System Architecture C2 (C2)-
Week-2ER model, UML and Relational ModelC3 (C3) Exercise 1 due Week-3-Lec-1
Week-3Oracle FundamentalsClassnotes(Week-3-Lec-1 Quiz 1)
Week-4Relational Model and Relational AlgebraC7 (C6)-
Week-5Relational language SQLC8 (C7)Exercise 2 due Week-5-Lec-1
Week-6Physical structuresC5 (C4 and C5)Exercise 3 due Week-6-Lec-2
Week-7-Lec-1Review of first seven chapters, B-tree and extendible hashing-Exercise 4 due Week-7-Lec-1
Week-7-Lec-2Midterm ExamC1 to C8 not C4 (C1 to C7)-
Week-8Relational Calculus and Normal FormsC9 (C8) and C14 (C12)-
Week-9-Lec-1Database IntegrityC8 (C12)Exercise 5 due Week-9-Lec-1
Week-9-Lec-2Oracle, DB2 and implementation issuesC10 (C9)project #1 discussion
Week-10Hierarchical model, IMS and MUMPS conceptsClassnotes (C11)Exercise 6 due Week-11-Lec-2, project #2 discussion
Week-11-Lec-1Hypertext model, HTML and XMLClassnotes-
Week-11-Lec-2WebBase Interface and ODBC conceptsClassnotes(Week-11-Lec-2 Quiz 2) project #2 discussion
Week-12Network Data Model and Object-oriented database conceptsC11 and C12 (C10 and C22)-
Week-13-Lec-1Common Gateway Interface for Web DatabaseClassnotes-
Week-13-Lec-2 Data Mining--
Week-14Database design and comparison of data modelsC9 and C12 (C12, C14 and C22.8)Early submission of projects (+3 bonus points) Week-14-Lec-1
Week-15-Lec-1ReviewC1-C12,C26.2 not C4 (C1-C8, C10-C12, C14, C22) and classnotesMiniproject due Week-15-Lec-1
Week-15-Lec-2Final ExamC1-C12, C26.2 not C4 (C1-C8, C10-C12, C14, C22) and classnotesLate submission of miniprojects (-2 penalty points, after final exam, no miniprojects may be submitted)
* Chapter references are to the 3rd edition of the textbook. (References to the 2nd edition are in parentheses)

Project Submission Schedule and Final Exam Coverage



Note: If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact both your instructor and Disability Resources and Services, 216 William Pitt Union, (412) 648-7890/(412) 383-7355 (TTY), as early as possible in the term. DRS will verify your disability and determine reasonable accommodations for this course.