CMSC724: Database Management Systems

Prof. Amol Deshpande;    CSI 1122;    Tue-Thu 11:00am-12:15pm

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Not finalized for Fall 2023 -- expect changes

Written Assignments (30%)

This is a research-oriented class and hence the main work in this class is independently reading and evaluating research papers in the field of databases. For each class, there will be one or two assigned papers. Although you are expected to skim through the papers before the class, the main work will be after the class. On roughly a biweekly basis, there will be a written assignment on the assigned papers for the previous two weeks. These assignments will ask specific questions about the topics covered in the paper, and will require you to read and understand the papers, and critically think about the topics, in depth. The actual grading of these will be fairly liberal.

All submissions will be through Gradescope.

Reviews of Recent Research Papers (15%)

In addition, you will be asked to review recent research papers (published in the last few years), alternating with the written assignments.

Programming Assignments (10%)

There will be several programming assignments, primarily focused on using several different data management systems.
  • Assignment 1: SQL (2.5 pts)
  • Assignment 2: MongoDB (2.5 pts)
  • Assignment 3: Spark (2.5 pts)
  • Assignment 4: PostgreSQL Query Optimization (2.5 pts)
Clone the class assignment git repository for the assignments as well as datasets. All submissions will be through Gradescope.

Class Project (30%)

The project will be a mini research project that will be conducted by groups.

There will be four major milestones. In an attempt to make the grading somewhat objective, this year each of the milestones will be separately graded with the split: 4 + 10 + 6 + 10 = 30 (however, I will consider extra credit for the later phases to make up for lost points earlier).

Group Members and the Project Idea/Proposal (Due: 10/13/2023)

Form the groups, meet with the instructor to discuss ideas, and submit a one-page proposal stating and motivating the problem.

Literature survey (Due: 10/27/2023)

A 3-4 page report that surveys the prior work, and puts your proposed work in context of the related prior work.

Intermediate Progress Report (Due: 11/22/2023)

A 5-7 page progress report.

Final Report (Due: 12/13/2023)

Final report (about 10-15 pages) should follow a research paper format.

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