MEDGAR EVERS COLLEGE of CUNY
Department of Physical, Environmental and Computer Sciences
Department Office, Carroll 417 - Phone 718-270-6453
“Time, Effort, Integrity”
Database Systems (CS 381)
Course Syllabus - 4 class hours, 3 credits
Course Description: This course is an introduction to database systems. Database systems are studied form a theoretical as well as a practical point of view. On the practical side, we design and implement a database using a DBMS (e.g., MySql). The theory of relational database is studied thoroughly, even though we confine our attention to functional and multi-valued dependencies only. [Topics such as Hypergraphs, cyclic and acyclic databases, etc are not included in the course.]
Prerequisite: CS 241 Discrete Structures, CS 246 Data Structures
Co-requisites: None
Required Textbook: Database Management Systems By Raghu Ramakrishnan and Johannes Gehrke. Published: McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering Edition: 3rd ISBN: 0072465638
Course Requirements: All students have the responsibility to arrive on time, attend class regularly, and to participate fully in the work of the course. Additionally, students are not to work on other materials in class. Assigned readings, problems should be completed before class.
Grading Procedure: The final grade will be determined objectively by using a weighted average of the following areas: chapter examinations, homework assignments, mid-term and the final examinations and a final report. Note that missed chapter examinations cannot be made-up. The lowest score from all chapter examinations will be dropped, before calculating the final average, provided all class examinations are taken.
Academic Requirements and Regulations: Students who officially withdraw from a course between the 4th through the 8th week receive a grade of W, which is not counted in computing the grade point average. Courses officially dropped after the 8th week of class will appear as a WF and count as an F grade. INC (Incomplete) or ABS (absent) grades will only be given to students who are passing the course.
Honor Code and Plagiarism: Students are required to sign and adhere to the departmental honor pledge. Check with the department for a copy of the pledge.
CUNY Proficiency Examination (CPE)
The CPE is a graduation requirement. All students between 45-60 credits are required to sit for and pass the CPE. You have only three chances to pass this examination. Each missed scheduled examination after the 45 credit mark counts as a failure. For more information about this requirement, contact the Medgar Evers College CPE Liaison.
CS 381
MEDGAR EVERS COLLEGE of CUNY
Department of Physical, Environmental and Computer Sciences
Database Systems (CS 381)
Course Outline
Weekly Topics
1 Introduction, Relational, network models
2 File organization, indexing, B-trees
3-4 Relational algebra and calculus
5-6 SQL: The query language; introduction to MySql DBMS
7-8 Evaluation of relational operators: selection, projection, join
9 The ER model; Armstrong’s axioms; FD’s; design theory
10-12 Lossless join decomposition; decompositions that preserve
dependencies; normal forms
13 Query optimization; use of semi-joins; security issues
14 Preparation/help for the final project
[Project: Design and Build (an assigned) database using MySql
DBMS and present a written report]
