Introduction to Database Design, MSc SD (Spring 2019)

Abstract

NA

Description

An important problem solved by computers is that of data storage and retrieval: E.g., to store efficiently the grade at every course of every student of the ITU University obtained in the last 5 years; and the ability to query such a database, i.e., find the grades of all students who enrolled after 2016 and who did not take a given course. This problem arises very broadly, in essentially every sector, every industry, and every application.

The course gives an introduction to relational databases as well as an introduction to data analytics, both from a practical and theoretical point of view.

The main part of the course deals with relational databases, including theory and practice for modeling and querying a database. Towards the end of the course the focus will be on techniques for data analytics.

For relational databases the following topics will be covered:

• Programming in SQL, including all basic operations as well as some more advanced constructions (e.g. subqueries).
• Other basic concepts related to relational databases and SQL, such as views, procedures, triggers, etc.
• Using SQL in applications, e.g. Java-applications.
• Database design using E-R modelling.
• Defining a database design using the relational model and SQL schemas.
• Normalization of relations.
• Query processing and optimization basics.
• Use of different indexes, including hash indexes, B-tree indexes, non-clustered and clustered indexes.
• Transactional concepts and transaction handling.

For data analytics the following topics will be covered:

• Approaches to data analytics (including OLAP and data warehousing).
• Introduction to data wrangling/processing.
• Societal context, including ethics concerns.
• Distributed map-reduce processing.

Formal prerequisites

This course assumes basic ability to use a computer. We also assume that a student is taking an introductory programming course in parallel (otherwise basic programming skills in Java are expected) and is following a discrete math course such as SGDM (or has knowledge of basic discrete math: logic, set theory and proofs). Please note that this course is not open to bachelor students. Instead bachelor students can take the SWU Bachelor course: Introduction to Database Design BSc. I øvrigt skal man opfylde IT-Universitetets generelle optagelseskrav.

Intended learning outcomes

After the course, the student should be able to: