CRN#
CSC 261 - 86259 (uGrad CS) CSC 461 - 86277 (Grad CS) TCS 461 - 86286 (TEAM CS)Prerequisites
CSC 172, CSC 173 recommendedTeaching staff
Instructor: Tamal Tanu Biswas Office: Wegmans 2107 Office Hours: Tu 5pm - 6pm, or by appointment Email: tbiswas2 [at] cs.rochester.edu TA: Haosen Wen Office: 2201 Wegmans Hall Office Hour: Mon/Fri 3:30 - 4:30 pm, Wed 5:00 - 6:00 pm, or by appointment Email: hwen5 [at] cs.rochester.eduCourse description
This course presents the fundamental concepts of database design and use. It provides a study of data models, data description languages, and query facilities including relational algebra and SQL, data normalization, transactions and their properties, physical data organization and indexing, security issues and object databases. It also looks at the new trends in databases, for example, Big Data, MapReduce, and NoSQL. The knowledge of the above topics will be applied in the design and implementation of a database application using a target database management system as part of a semester-long group project.Topics covered
The course covers foundational material in the field of database systems. In this course, we will cover:- Basic introductory concepts necessary for a good understanding of database models.
- Database Management System (DBMS) concepts, terminology, and architecture.
- Entity relationship modeling and database design.
- Relational database and SQL for efficiently storing, retrieving, and updating data in a database.
- File organization on disk, indexing and hashing
- Concurrency and database recovery,
- Distributed databases, NoSQL storage systems, Big data, MapReduce
- Basics of MongoDB and Spark.
- Database Security (if time permits)
Course schedule
Faculty | Location | Days | Time |
---|---|---|---|
Tamal Biswas | CSB 601 | MW | 12:30 PM - 1:45 PM |
Required textbook

Fundamentals of Database Systems, 7th Edition
(ISBN: 0133970779) by Ramez Elmasri & Shamkant B. Navathe (© Pearson Education, 2016).
Workload
- In-class Quizzes
- Assignments and Projects
- 1 Mid Term
- 1 Final
Grading policy
- Quiz (20% of the course grade)
- There will be 10+ quizzes. Best 10 quizzes are considered for grading.
- Each quiz carries 2% of the course grade
- All the quizzes will be held during the lectures on Mondays.
- Exams (30% of the course grade)
- 1 midterm (15%)
- 1 final exam (15%)
Midterm on Oct 25, 2017
Final on Monday, December 18,2017 at 7:15 PM - Projects (45% of the course grade)
- Class Participation
- 5 points will be awarded based on in-class participation and posts on Piazza.
- Term Paper (Only for CSC/TCS 461 students)
- Students need to review one or more conference/journal papers, implement or add features to it.
- Students need to submit a report based on their results or findings.
- 8 additional points (making the total grade 108. The score will be scaled to 100 for the final letter grade)