How To Contact Me :

• Contact me via email at "rundenst@cs.wpi.edu" with CS561 in the subject line. I get lot's and lot's of email every day. I'll look out for that subject line and then will aim to respond to your messages within 24 hours, whenever possible.
  
• Second, I will be available directly after class on Mondays until no questions remain.
  
• Third, I'll be in my office at WPI practically all days 9am-5pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. If it is a brief issue that you need an answer for, please feel free to drop by my office at any time and interrupt me. I'll then try to answer your question.
• Or, if none of above works for you, please make an appointment by emailing or by dropping by, so that we can set aside a longer meeting time.
  

  Mailing List for Course

  Note that an email mailing list for this course will be set up. It is called "cs561-all" at the address "@cs.wpi.edu". You need to subscribe yourself to this list asap in order to receive messages related to the course (by sending an email message to "majordomo@cs.wpi.edu" with message "subscribe cs561-all").
  You are encouraged to send questions to the entire class via our mailing list for items of general interest. Since if you are having a problem, it is likely that others have or will encounter the same problem. Who knows, someone may have already found a solution to your problem and will be willing to share it.

  Goals and Intended Audience

  This course will provide you with an overview of a selected set of the advanced topics in database systems. The goal is to expose you to the current active areas in databases of interest to both academia and industry by reading book chapters as well as papers from the recent literature and discussing them in class. You will also get an in-depth look into some set of technologies by conducting a course project in an area of your choosing (as long as related to databases in some form and agreed to by the instructor), and by preparing tutorials on several database topics and then presenting them to the students in the course (again selection of topics with guidance and approval by the instructor).

  This course is for you if you are interested in learning about the state-of-the-art in database systems. This course could also serve as starting point for you to begin to conduct research in the field of databases. Your course project, if selected carefully, could in some cases be extended to lead to a publication, though typically after further effort beyond the 14 week time period of the class. Hence, in some cases, it could also be a start into a Master's thesis or a first step towards Ph.D. level research work.

  Recommended Background

  You should have a basic familiarity with relational databases, the equivalent of a beginning course in databases. Instead if you have used a database system before in practice, you may also have sufficient basic understanding required for the course. If you are in doubt, you get permission from the instructor.

  Some programming experience in a high-level programming language (such as java or C++ or C) will be necessary for the course in order to pursue a course project.

  Text Book

  There will not be an assigned textbook in the course, since there is no good book available covering this diversity of current DBMS topics. Instead, we will be reading selected chapters from books and papers from the literature. I will hand copies of these papers out directly in class, link them onto our course webpage, or make them available for copying in the department.

  Optional Readings

  If you need to brush up on your basic relational database knowledge, then below are some books (some have newer editions) you may want to look over:
  • Raghu Ramakrishnan and Johannes Gehrke, DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS McGraw-Hill Publisher, third Edition Pub date: 2002, ISBN: 0-07-246563-8. ( This book is typically used for our first DBMS CS542 course.)
    
  • Fundamentals of Database Systems, R. Elmasri, and S. Navathe, Benjamin Cummings.
  • Principles of Data and Knowledge Base Systems, Volume 1, J.D. Ullman, Computer Science Press.
  • Database System Concepts, 2nd Edition, H.F. Korth and A. Silberschatz, McGraw-Hill.
  • A First Course in Database Systems, J. Widom and J. D. Ullman, Prentice-Hall.

  Information about Database System at WPI (Oracle).

  This link Getting-started-with-Oracle contains information to get you started with Oracle as prepared by several folks at Stanford University, including setting up connections to oracle, Web interfaces to Oracle, Java interfacing to Oracle with JDBC, etc. This would be one potential platform to try out your course projects out.

  Topics

  There will be a core collection of readings in selected topics in databases around which our discussions will be centered. These may include:

  • Database modeling (relational, object-oriented models, web models).
  • Object-oriented/object-relational databases.
  • Active database systems (i.e., databases and rule management).
  • View materialization
  • Data warehousing.
  • On-line Analytic Processing (OLAP).
  • Database mining and knowledge discovery.
  • Information integration and mediation.
  • Query optimization.
  • New data types: unstructured, textual, etc.
  • Databases and the WWW.
  • Web Site Management Systems.
  • Multimedia database systems.
  • Stream management systems
  • Continuous query processing
  • Advanced database tools, such as schema evolution managers, middle layer engines, etc.
  • Sensor database systems.
  • P2P technology.
  • Distributed databases
  • Heterogeneous databases and data integration.
  • Data management problems and solutions for non-traditional applications, such as E-commerce, engineering, internet, intranet, etc.
  
  

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  Grading Policy

  Final grades are computed based on 100 points:
  • 10 points: Active Participation in the Course Discussions.
  • 10 points: Assignments (Written critiques of our readings, discussions, and possibly other written homework)
  • 30 points: Student Presentations
  • 30 points: Student Projects (Mini Course Projects, Final Course Project)
  • 20 points: Final Examination.
  If you are between two grades, active participation in the course discussions will be weighed extra positively. This may be helping you to reach the higher of the two grades.

  Late Policy

  You are strongly encouraged to turn in any assignments on-time. Unless otherwise noted for a particular assignment, the following late policy holds. Late assignments will be penalized by subtracting 25% of the total achievable points of that deliverable, if turned in within the first 24 hours after the due date. Between 24 to 48 hours late turnin will result in a reduction of 50% of the total achievable points. Certain deliverables may not have ANY LATE day, as announced. Most importantly, late point reductions cannot be made up by later improvements.

  A Note on Plagerism and Cheating

  Unless explicitly noted, all work is to be done on an individual basis. Note in particular that copying of any material, may it be a single sentence or a figure, from any location (including the internet) without proper acknowledgement of the source constitutes plagerism. Any violation of the WPI's guidelines for academic integrity will result in no credit for the course and referral to the Student Affairs Office for disciplinary action.