Instructor: David Yang (Science South 433, dyang@csuhayward.edu)
Time: Mondays, Wednesdays 4PM-5:50PM
Location: Science North 336 

Blackboard will be used for submission of assignments and posting of course material, while email to the class will go to your Horizon account.

Text:
Various web pages and web sites.
For those who want a text, I've made Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan, Database Systems Concepts with Oracle CD , 4th ed., McGraw-Hill, 2001, ISBN 0072554819 the "recommended" text. However, you will not be required to read or use anything from this book. Some of the lecture notes were developed from the Elmasri and Navathe text. A former colleague really disliked this book, but it does have an excellent procedure for converting an entity-relationship model into a relational database.

Goals:

• to develop an understanding of the concepts and techniques of of designing the organization of data with an emphasis on supporting data consistency.
• to model data organization using the entity-relationship model and display the model with an entity-relationship diagram
• to check and improve the model using normalization
• to practice these concepts and techniques using a relational database
• to learn how to use SQL to create, modify and, most popularly, query a relational database

Calculation of your grade: 
In-class assignments 10%
Homework 20%
Individual project 20%
Exams 15% each
The comprehensive final exam will count for 20%.

[grading note: Your exams must average (using the relative weights above) out to a C- or better in order to get at least a C- in the course.]

Final grades will be given according to the following scale:

93-100 A, 90-92 A-, 87-89 B+, 83-86 B, 80-82 B-, 77-79 C+, 73-76 C, 70-72 C-,67-69 D+, 60-66 D, 0-59 F 

Attendance:
Remember that standard policy dictates that students who do not attend can be removed in favor of students on the waiting list who do show up. Also, note that you need to be in class to do the in-class assignments and to take the exams.

Academic Honesty: This course will follow the University's standard policy on academic dishonesty. In particular, note that regardless of whether you copy work from another student or allow another student to copy your work on an exam, you are both equally guilty and equally penalized. Copying text/files off the internet without properly giving credit is also cheating. Any cheating on an exam results in an F for the course. Cheating twice also results in an automatic F. All instances of cheating will be reported to the Dean's office.

Remember that the University may inflict further penalties than listed here under the provisions of the published Academic Dishonesty Policy. 

Office Hours: My office is in room 433 of the South Science Building. My tentative schedule for office hours is: 

• Monday noon-1 PM, 2:45 PM-3:45 PM 
• Wednesday 2:45 PM-3:45 PM

I will also be available at other times. You can make an appointment, though stopping by to see if I'm around is Fine. It is better to ask questions before the exams. 

Tentative Schedule All days in red are mandatory. Days in green are holidays

Reading:
Informix tutorial, chap. 8, first 3 pages
Notes:
Entity-Relationship Diagram

Last day to withdraw