ADVANCED TOPICS IN DATABASES

COURSE OUTLINE

1. GENERAL

SCHOOL School of Engineering
ACADEMIC UNIT Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
LEVEL OF STUDIES Undergraduate
COURSE CODE 0811.8.023.0 SEMESTER 2nd
COURSE TITLE Advanced Topics in DataBases
INDEPENDENT TEACHING ACTIVITIES
if credits are awarded for separate components of the course 		WEEKLY
TEACHING HOURS		 CREDITS
0 4
Total 0 4
COURSE TYPE
general background, special background, specialised general knowledge, skills development		 Special background / Core
PREREQUISITE COURSES Sucessful completeion of an Introductory course on Databases
LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION and EXAMINATIONS Greek and English
OFFERED TO ERASMUS STUDENTS Yes (in English)
COURSE WEBSITE (URL) https://eclass.hmu.gr/courses/ECE158/

2. LEARNING OUTCOMES

Learning outcomes

The course aims to present current and emerging approaches to the modeling, design and development of database applications. The course builds on the foundations of the introductory third-semester course “Introduction to databases” which is considered a prerequisite. The specific targets of the course cover four thematic areas, namely (a) review of classical data models and database management systems (b) theory of database design (c) advanced data models and (d) databases and the internet. Accordingly, the course outline is formed around these four thematic areas. 
General Competences

Successful completion of the course will promote general skills including 

  • Analysing an information system and record the logical structure of the data used in alternative forms and using alternative tools
  • Designing relational schemata to obey to advanced normal forms
  • Transforming data across data modeling frameworks 
  • Understand the basics of alternative approaches to database development with emphasis on object-orientation, graph databases and deductive systems  

3. SYLLABUS

The theoretical part will cover:

  • Introduction to data modeling and relational database management systems: Overview of classical data models, The relational approach to database development, Overview of SQL and Relational Algebra, Extensions to the basic relational data model, summary of advanced data modeling approaches.
  • Relational design theory: Functional dependency theory, Schema decomposition, Desirable properties of well-formed schema, Assessment of decomposition, closure of a set of attributes, Applications of functional dependency theory, Normal forms
  • Alternative data models and approaches to database development: Database modelling and the Unified Modelling Language (UML), Transformation of UML models to relational schema and vice versa, Object-oriented concepts and object orientation to databases, (e.g., abstract data types, inheritance, isa- and part-of hierarchies), object-relational databases (SQL3), Graph databases, Deductive databases. 
  • NoSQL systems and data model mappings (e.g., relations to property graph and vice versa)

In the laboratory students engage in individual exercises and a case study which addresses most of the issues raised in the theory part.

4. TEACHING and LEARNING METHODS - EVALUATION

DELIVERY
Face-to-face, Distance learning, etc.		 Face to face / distance learning
USE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Use of ICT in teaching, laboratory education, communication with students

e-class and PostgreSQL
TEACHING METHODS
The manner and methods of teaching are described in detail.
Activity Semester workload
Lecturing 40
Project-based work / case study 80
Course total 120
STUDENT PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
Description of the evaluation procedure

The course grade is based on project-based assessments of written (30 %), presentation (30 %) and practical work (40 %).

5. ATTACHED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Η. Garcia-Molina, J. Ullman, J. Widom (2020): Database Systems (single volume), Crete University Publishing.

A. Silberschatz, H. F. Korth & S. Sudarshan (2001): Database System Concepts (4th Edition), McGraw-Hill ISBN 0-07-255481-9.

R. Elmasri & S. Navathe (1996): Fundamentals of Database Systems, Μετάφραση στα Ελληνικά από τις εκδόσεις "ΔΙΑΥΛΟΣ".

Instructor's notes and papers

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING, HELLENIC MEDITERRANEAN UNIVERSITY