CS430/630 Database Management Fall 2009

Instructor: Betty O'Neil, Dept. of CS, UMass/Boston

Office: Science 3/169

Email:  eoneil@cs.umb.edu

Phone: 617-287-6455

Prerequisites: You should know C and UNIX, for example by having taken CS240. You should have a strong undergraduate mathematics background, for example by having taken CS320. Undergraduates must have taken CS310 (data structures and algorithms), grad students may take it concurrently.

If you have the prerequisites, you may enroll in CS430, the undergrad course, or CS630, the graduate course. The lectures are in common. CS630 will have some additional topics with homework and exam coverage.

Text: Patrick O'Neil and Elizabeth (Betty) O'Neil, "Database: Principles, Programming and Performance," Morgan Kaufmann, Second Edition.

Topics covered: The object of this course is to introduce students to the concepts needed by a database applications programmer or Database Administrator (DBA), who maintains and runs a Database Management System for some commercial enterprise. CS630 will cover the first several chapters of O'Neil and O'Neil: Introduction, Relational Algebra, Basic SQL, Object-Relational SQL, Database Design, Programming in SQL. The rest of the text will be covered in CS634.

Grading: Simple point system. Sum of points determines grade.

• Homeworks (programs and handwritten), drop lowest one: about 50 points
• Midterm and Final Exams: 100 and 150 points

Incompletes: I follow the strict guidelines of the University regarding Incompletes. They are for true emergencies only.

To get started: Get an account for this class by running "apply" in S/3/158, the UNIX terminal room down the hall from the departmental office. You need to do this even if you already have a UNIX account. The application process sets up a new homework directory for this class and gives you a link to it from your login directory using the name "cs630." DO NOT MAKE a cs630 subdirectory in your login directory! That would only interfere with the apply process. For more information on the apply process, see the postings in the terminal room.

Do all your homework in the supplied homework directory. Do not change the protections of the homework directory or any of its subdirectories or files. The protections are specially set up to allow graders and instructors but not other students from accessing your work.