CS 6360, Database Design, Fall 2020

CNR 86597, Sec 004

M/W 1:00pm ~ 2:15pm, Online
Instructor and TA

Schedule: lecture, homework and examination schedule
Web Pages:Main (http://www.utdallas.edu/~weiliwu/CS6360_F2020/CS6360_F2020.htm), Class Notes, Instructor Announcements, TA Announcements .

Text Book: Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, 6th Edition, Addison Wesley, ISBN 10: 0-136-08620-9; ISBN 13: 978-0-136-08620-8.

Topics: Database management concepts, data models, query languages, database design theory, transactions, concurrency control, recovery, and trends (Big Data, etc.).

Examinations and Assignments: There are 3 homeworks, and a project. All assignments must have your name, student ID and course name/ number.

The weighting scheme used for grading is: Midterm exams - 30%, Final exam - 40%, Assignments - 15%, Project - 15%. There are two necessary conditions for passing this class: 1) Submission of all assignments and Project, and 2) scoring >= 50% on the final examination. Students are responsible for all material covered in lectures, as well as that specifically mentioned as part of the reading assignments. Examinations will heavily emphasize conceptual understanding of the material.

Late Submission Policy: Assignments must be handed in at the beginning of the class on the specified due date (Monday of designated week). Late homeworks should be submitted to the TA in email (postscript, pdf,&n bsp;text or MS Word doc files) as well as on paper in TA's personal office. A penalty of 30% will be deducted from your score for the first 24-hour period your assignment is late. A penalty of 70% will be deducted from your score for >= 24-hour period. No credit for >= 3 days. Weekend days will be counted. For assignments, you are encouraged to type your answers. For programming assignments you are encouraged to use pretty printers to make your listings more readable. Following is (roughly) the weight distribution for laboratory problems: Correctness - 60%, Test Results Summary - 10%, Code readability including comments - 15%, Approach and Report - 15%. Report should discuss assumptions and findings.

Cheating/ Collaboration: Getting help from services like general debugging service (GDS), copying someone else's assignment or the common solution of written or programming assignments will be considered cheating. The purpose of assignments is to provide individual feedback as well to get you thinking. Interaction for the purpose of understanding a problem is not considered cheating and will be encouraged. However, the actual solution to problems must be one's own.

Helpful Comments: This class is very interesting and useful. However, a lot of material will be covered and many new concepts will be introduced. To get full benefit out of the class you have to work regularly. Read the textbook regularly and start working on the assignments soon after they are handed out. Plan to spend at least 10 hrs a week on this class doing assignments or reading.

Good Luck, and Welcome to CS 6360!

Weili Wu