CS336 - Principles of Database Management Systems
Course Information
Spring 2002
Updated 02-18-02

Instructor:

Dr. John E. Keane
Rutgers Office: Hill 427
Email: keane@cs.rutgers.edu
Phone: (732)254-0210 x6109
Office Hours: Fridays, 6:15-7:45PM.  Other times by arrangement.

If you have questions or concerns about the course, please contact me directly. I will read my Rutgers email at least once a day, so you should receive a reply within 24 hours.   I generally will not answer very lengthy questions via phone or email, but will make an appointment to meet with you to discuss them.

TAs:

Prerequisites:

You must have completed CS112 and CS205 (or equivalent) to be in this course! If you do not have this background, you will find it very difficult to do well in this class. If you are uncertain, please see me.

You must be able to write programs in Java from clear functional specifications. The implementation assignments for this semester will require the use of Java, and will account for 25% of your final grade.  Neither the TA(s) nor I will have the resources to provide a great deal of assistance with these assignments. In particular, we will not be providing detailed algorithms, data structures, code fragments, etc. If you are uncertain whether you have the necessary programming skills, please see me.

Course Meeting Times
Lecture Thursday 6:10-9:00 PM Hill 116
Recitation Section 01: Tuesday 7:40-8:35 PM
Section 02: Tuesday 9:10-10:05 PM
Section 03: Thursday 9:10-10:05 PM		 SEC-207
SEC-210
ARC-206

Textbooks:

Required:

    * Database System Concepts, Fourth Edition, Abraham Silberschatz, Henry Korth, and S. Sudarshan, McGraw-Hill, 1997.

Supplemental:

    * Fundamentals of Database Systems, Second Edition, Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe, Addison-Wesley, 1994.
        (On reserve)

    * Thinking in Java, Second Edition, Bruce Eckel, Prentice-Hall, 2000.
        (See class web page)

Course Workload:

In addition to the 2 1/2 hours of lecture and 50 minutes of recitation per week, in order to do really well in this class, you minimally should expect the following out-of-class time commitments:

These numbers are very approximate, and are provided just to give you a sense of the overall workload for this class. They do not include additional study time in preparation for the hourly and final exams. The amount of time you actually spend on this class will depend on your abilities and level of commitment.

Grading Policy:

Final grades will be computed according to the following percentages:

Final grade assignment will be done on an objective basis, according to your numerical grade computed using the above percentages. Letter grades will be then determined by rank in class, according to a curve centered around C+. This means that approximately half the grades given in this class will be C+ and below. Your grade will depend on how well you do relative to the other students in the class. I do give D and F grades. If you are not willing to accept this grading policy, please withdraw from this class now!

Exams:

All exams will be open book and open notes. The midterm exam will be given during a regularly scheduled class period according to the syllabus. The final exam will be given during the regular final exam period given in the Schedule of Classes for classes meeting at this time: Thursday, May 9, 8:00PM - 11:00PM. If you believe you have a conflict with this exam time, notify me as soon as possible.

On the exams, you will be responsible for all material presented in class. This will necessarily exclude some material in the assigned readings, but will include material that is not presented in the book. A reminder that while you may discuss assignments with other students at a general level, the work on all problem sets and exams must be yours alone.  Some portions of the database design and implementation project work will be done in collaboration with one to three project partners.

Database Design and Implementation Projects:

There will be several project assignments relating to the implementation of database systems using programs written in Java.  It is important to keep up with the project work, as the implementation will progress in stages, each part re-using work completed in earlier assignments.  The final implementation will use a relational database management system (the MySQL DBMS), and will be demonstrated by each project group at the end of the semester.

Online Course Information:

All "handouts" (like this one) and some course materials will be placed in the course web page: <http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~keane/cs336> Due to departmental policy regarding per-student limits on photocopying by faculty, I will not distribute paper copies of any handout. You are responsible for obtaining class materials and assignments from the class web page!

Critical announcements will be posted through the "Announcements" link on the web page. You are responsible for checking this link on a regular basis. Please use email, the phone, or meetings to communicate directly with the instructor and TA(s) when you have questions or concerns.

Policy on Cheating:

Cheating in any form will not be tolerated. If detected, it will result in immediate loss of grade for all parties participating, at a minimum, and may result in further disciplinary action according to Rutgers policies. Reports of cheating by students will be taken seriously and investigated. If you see cheating taking place and do not bring it to my attention, you are complicit in the activity!