Teaching Assistants and TA Office Hours

TA office hours will be held throughout the week. See Piazza for details.
No office hours on University Holidays
No appointment is necessary for TA office hours.

Bella Chin

Komal Jain

Eddie Lowney

Katya Luchette

Course Information

Course Description

This course presents how to design a relational database from requirements gathering, to conceptual and logical modeling. We also cover how to query databases using SQL, the ACID properties of a relational database management system, and fundamentals of database programming using triggers, stored procedures, functions, and events. Advanced topics include indexing, transactions, concurrency and recovery. The course will also provide an introduction to non-relational (NoSQL) databases. Students will carry out an individual data integration and analysis project. Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:

• Design, implement, and query a relational database
• Write complex SQL queries, SQL functions, SQL triggers and SQL procedures
• Connect a computer application to a commercial relational database (MySQL) and access and manipulate data from the database within the application
• Act as database administer to a MySQL server
• Describe ACID properties and the inner workings of transactions
• Describe the strengths and the weaknesses of both the SQL and NoSQL DBMS

Class Participation and Class Recordings

This is an online but synchronous course with live lectures. Lectures will usually be recorded and recording will be available on Canvas..Zoom Meetings..Cloud Recordings. Please note that recordings should not be used as a substitute for coming to class. I strongly recommend that you come to every live session with your cameras on and your microphone muted. In the event you need to miss a class, I will be posting lecture notes and coding examples that evening. (Materials should be available by 8pm.)

I very much welcome active background discussion in my classrooms. To ask a question, feel free to virtually raise your hand or post your question on chat. And if you know the answer, go ahead and respond!

Recommended Reading

Additional recommended readings may be assigned from books that are freely available to you through O'Reilly E-Books.

Homework and Late Policy

There will be 5-6 assignments and a database capstone project due near the end of the semester. The detailed dates are listed on the schedule below. Homework will be submitted on GradeScope. Homework cannot be accepted by email. My extension/late policy is very straight-forward: homework submitted 1-48 hours late receives a 10% penalty. No homeworks will be accepted more than 48 hours late. Please understand that with a class this size, maintaining a strict schedule for homework submissions and grading is paramount.

Academic Integrity (Please Read!)

Database design and formulating SQL queries is a creative process. Individuals must reach their own understanding of problems and discover paths to their solutions. Verbal discussions with fellow students is fine, but I expect each student to do their own work unless I explicitly allow for group assignments. If you share code, files, queries, or database designs you are breaking the rules. Do not, under any circumstances, share code, queries, or designs with your fellow students. This is a direct violation of the course collaboration policy.

Use of ChatGPT or other AI-assisted tools for coding, database design, or answering questions of any kind is generally prohibited but with each assignment I may proscribe specific ways in which AI may be used ethically and responsibly. When in doubt, assume that use of AI is not allowed.

Please be aware that I take the issue of academic integrity very seriously. The consequences of cheating in my class are at my discretion and may include receiving a zero for the assignment or quiz, a full letter grade reduction in your final grade, or failing the course altogether. Please contact me if you have any questions about acceptable conduct BEFORE you submit your homework. And if you are stuck on an assignment, the TAs and I are here to help, or you can pose your question on Piazza. The university's academic integrity policy discusses actions regarded as violations and consequences for students: http://www.northeastern.edu/osccr/academic-integrity

Evaluation

The final grade for this course will be weighted as follows:

• Homework: 75%
• Database Capstone Project (2-4 students per group): 25%

Letter	Range
A	94 - 100
A-	90 - 93.9999
B+	87 - 89.9999
B	83 - 86.9999
B-	80 - 82.9999
C+	77 - 79.9999
C	73 - 76.9999
C-	70 - 72.9999
D+	67 - 69.9999
D	63 - 66.9999
D-	60 - 62.9999
F	<60