Undergraduate Course: Database Systems (INFR09011)

Course Outline
School	School of Informatics	College	College of Science and Engineering
Course type	Standard	Availability	Available to all students
Credit level (Normal year taken)	SCQF Level 9 (Year 3 Undergraduate)	Credits	10
Home subject area	Informatics	Other subject area	None
Course website	http://course.inf.ed.ac.uk/dbs	Taught in Gaelic?	No
Course description	Databases are essential to maintaining the information base in almost all modern business enterprises and to electronic commerce. They are also becoming increasingly important as a fundamental tool in much scientific research. Some knowledge of databases is now essential in any of these areas. The study of databases draws on several areas of computer science: logic, algorithms, programming languages and operating systems. This course is an introduction to the principles underlying the design and implementation of databases and database management systems. It will cover the languages that have been developed for relational databases, their implementation and optimisation. It will also introduce some recent developments in databases including object-oriented, object-relational systems, semistructured data and the relationship between databases and XML. The bare essentials of transaction processing will also be covered.

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites		Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations		Other requirements	This course is open to all Informatics students including those on joint degrees. For external students where this course is not listed in your DPT, please seek special permission from the course organiser. Students are expected to have taken a basic course in logic and discrete mathematics.
Additional Costs	None

Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisites	None
Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus?	Yes

Course Delivery Information

Delivery period: 2013/14 Semester 1, Available to all students (SV1)			Learn enabled: No	Quota: None
Web Timetable	Web Timetable
Course Start Date	16/09/2013
Breakdown of Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 100 ( Lecture Hours 20, Seminar/Tutorial Hours 8, Summative Assessment Hours 2, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 68 )
Additional Notes
Breakdown of Assessment Methods (Further Info)	Written Exam 75 %, Coursework 25 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Exam Information
Exam Diet	Paper Name	Hours & Minutes
Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May)		2:00
Resit Exam Diet (August)		2:00

Delivery period: 2013/14 Semester 1, Part-year visiting students only (VV1)			Learn enabled: No	Quota: None
Web Timetable	Web Timetable
Course Start Date	16/09/2013
Breakdown of Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 100 ( Lecture Hours 20, Seminar/Tutorial Hours 8, Summative Assessment Hours 2, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 68 )
Additional Notes
Breakdown of Assessment Methods (Further Info)	Written Exam 75 %, Coursework 25 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Exam Information
Exam Diet	Paper Name	Hours & Minutes
Main Exam Diet S1 (December)		2:00

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
1 - Demonstrate knowledge of relational database schema design by employing the concepts of normal forms and entity-relationship diagrams. 2 - Demonstrate the ability to declare, define, and access relational database schemas in relational database management systems using the data definition language subset of SQL. 3 - Demonstrate knowledge of querying relational databases by using SQL and the ability to convert relational algebra queries to SQL. 4 - Demonstrate knowledge of query evaluation by describing and implementing database processing algorithms. 5 - Demonstrate the ability to programmatically map other data models to the relational one. 6 - Demonstrate knowledge of concurrency control by describing transactional semantics. 7 - Apply transactional semantics to reason about the correctness and consistency of database interaction among multiple users. 8 - Demonstrate knowledge of recent advances in database systems by identifying the connection between traditional relational databases and other data models and/or query languages. 9 - Demonstrate a basic knowledge of serial data expressed in XML. 10 - Demonstrate understanding and the ability to implement tools for structuring and querying XML.

Assessment Information
Written Examination 75 Assessed Assignments 25 Oral Presentations 0 Assessment Three exercises, two small pen-and-paper ones (each worth 5% of the final mark) and a larger programming one (worth 15% of the final mark). If delivered in semester 1, this course will have an option for semester 1 only visiting undergraduate students, providing assessment prior to the end of the calendar year.

Special Arrangements
None

Additional Information
Academic description	Not entered
Syllabus	* Relational Model and Relational Algebra * SQL and SQL DDL * Designing databases: E-R diagrams and functional dependencies * Datalog, recursive queries and graph queries * Comprehensions and OQL * XML: types and languages for XML * HTML and PHP programming * Query optimization and indexing * Implementation of relational operations * Transaction processing, concurrency and serialization Relevant QAA Computing Curriculum Sections: Databases
Transferable skills	Not entered
Reading list	Raghu Ramakrishnan and Johannes Gehrke, Database Management Systems (Third Edition) McGraw-Hill 2000.
Study Abroad	Not entered
Study Pattern	Lectures 20 Tutorials 8 Timetabled Laboratories 0 Non-timetabled assessed assignments 30 Private Study/Other 42 Total 100
Keywords	Not entered

Contacts
Course organiser	Mr Vijayanand Nagarajan Tel: (0131 6)51 3440 Email: vijay.nagarajan@ed.ac.uk	Course secretary	Miss Claire Edminson Tel: (0131 6)51 7607 Email: C.Edminson@ed.ac.uk