Database System Implementation

CS346 Spring 2015

Schedule & Handouts

Links to more handouts may be added over time. Lectures may change, but the project due dates are set.
I use the slides provided to prepare my blackboard lectures. There is no 1-1 mapping from slides to the crazy things I say in class.

Course Info

Course Staff

Chris Re Instructor

• Office Hours: Before Class (Mon/Wed 10-11 AM) and by Appointment
• Office: Gates 433
• Email: chrismre at cs

Jaeho Shin Teaching Assistant

• Office Hours: Fri 2-4 PM (every week), Wed 2-4 PM (before dues)
• Office: Gates 427
• Email: jaeho.shin at stanford

Marianne Siroker Administrator

• Office: Gates 435
• Phone: 723-0872
• Email: siroker at cs

Communication

• Piazza is the main place where all announcements, questions, and discussions are posted.

• Important announcements are also sent out to the mailing list cs346-spr1415-all which includes all enrolled students.

• Emails concerning individual issues should always be sent to cs346-spr1415-staff@lists.stanford.edu. Also, RedBase Part 5: EX proposals should be submitted to that address.

Course Contents

There will be five aspects to the course:

1. The basic RedBase project, implemented by each student individually.

2. An extension to RedBase, individually conceived, designed, and implemented by each student.

3. Lectures on aspects of the RedBase project.

4. Lectures on advanced database system implementation techniques, with an emphasis on query processing and optimization.

5. Guest lecturers from industry describing commercial database system implementation techniques, with an emphasis on query processing and optimization.

An overview and details of the project can be found on the RedBase Project page.

Prerequisites

CS145 (Introduction to Databases) and CS245 (Database System Principles) or equivalent knowledge is essential. We will assume that all students already understand basic database system implementation techniques. In this course you will put your basic knowledge into practice while learning about more advanced implementation techniques including those used in commercial products.

We recommend that all students have prior experience with Unix, and at least with the C programming language. It is preferred that students have C++ experience as well, although it is not essential. Students with no C++ experience will need to learn quickly; students with no C/Unix experience probably should not take this course.

Units

Students may enroll in CS346 for 3, 4, or 5 units. All students are expected to do the same amount of work regardless of their number of units. CS346 is a 5-unit course in terms of work; it is offered for fewer units as a courtesy to students who have a limit.

Readings and Textbook

A few research papers will be made available on the web as suggested reading. There is no required textbook for the course, but students may wish to own a comprehensive database textbook for reference, for example:

• Database Systems: The Complete Book
  H. Garcia-Molina, J.D. Ullman, and J. Widom; Prentice Hall

Other textbooks such as those by Silberschatz, Korth, & Sudarshan; Ramakrishnan & Gehrke; Elmasri & Navathe; O'Neil; or Date also are sufficient.

Grading

90% of your final grade will be based on the project and 10% on class participation. The complete breakdown is:

Your programs will be graded on correctness and efficiency, as well as on descriptions of key design decisions. Details on program grading criteria and mechanisms are provided in the RedBase Logistics document.

Please note that attendance to all guest lectures are required.

CS346 is not graded on a curve. It's a difficult class, and everyone who performs well (defined very roughly as ~90% of project points, good class participation, and a solid RedBase extension) will get an A.

Past Offerings

Here are websites of some of the past offerings of the course.

• Spring 2014
• Spring 2011
• Spring 2007

Students with Documented Disabilities

Students who may need an academic accommodation based on the impact of a disability must initiate the request through the Office of Accessible Education (OAE). OAE staff will evaluate the request with required documentation, recommend reasonable accommodations, and prepare an Accommodation Letter for faculty dated in the current quarter in which the request is being made. Students should contact OAE as soon as possible since timely notice is needed to coordinate accommodations:

563 Salvatierra Walk
TTY: (650) 723-1067
Voice: (650) 723-1066

Honor Code

Under the Honor Code at Stanford, each of you is expected to submit your own work in this course: all code submitted must have been written by you. However, on many occasions when working on programs it is useful to talk with others (the instructor, the TA, or other students) about design decisions and programming strategies. Such activity is both acceptable and encouraged, but when you turn in your programs you must indicate any assistance you received. Any assistance received that is not given proper citation will be considered a violation of the Honor Code.

The project extension proposal must represent individual ideas and writing, and we discourage excessive collaboration in developing proposals. Quiz answers must be original.

The course staff will pursue aggressively all suspected cases of Honor Code violations, and they will be handled through official University channels. The course staff may employ plagiarism-detection software to ensure that programs turned in are the original work of each student.