Advanced database technology, Spring 2003

[Course description] [Course goal] [Prerequisites] [Course format] [Examination] [Schedule] [Lecturers]

Course description

The course will focus on implementation aspects of databases. In particular, we focus on situations where there are large amounts of data, or where advanced queries are needed, and show how to implement efficient data structures to address these needs. Among other things, the following topics will be treated: Index structures, error recovery, relational operations, query optimization, external memory algorithms, XML queries, GIS (geographic information systems) databases, and text indexing.

The course will consist of two main parts. The first part will treat traditional database implementation topics covered in database textbooks. The second part will focus on algorithmic aspects of large data sets and will be based on surveys and research papers.

Note that this is a theoretical course. There will not be any implementation or exercises using computers.

Course goal

The goal of the course is to provide the student with an understanding of the inner workings of modern data storage and retrieval systems. After the course, the student should be able to analyze a given database task, and suggest an alternative implementation if standard database solutions are not efficient. In particular, the student should be able to:

Prerequisites

The students should before the course This can be obtained through the courses introduction to algorithms and data structures (IADS) and database systems (DBS).

Course format

Teaching consists of lectures and exercises.
Mandatory hand-ins every week, at least 60% of which must be satisfactory to enter the exam.

Examination

Oral (25 minute) or written (4 hour) exam depending on the number of students. (Up to 20 means oral, otherwise written.)
Mandatory hand-ins required to enter exam.

Schedule

Lectures and exercises on Thursdays.

Lecturers

Rasmus Pagh
Office: 1.09
Phone: 38 16 89 34
Email: pagh@it-c.dk
Anna Östlin
Office: 1.09
Phone: 38 16 88 21
Email: annao@it-c.dk