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Announcements

May 8

Solutions to the final-exam review problems are now available on the usual solutions page.

April 26

The final exam for E-268 students from within the six-state New England area will be held on Wednesday, May 15, at our usual lecture time and location. The exam will cover the entire semester. There are some review problems available here.

Students from outside New England should arrange for a proctor ASAP. See the distance-education exam policy for more details.

March 4

The solutions to the practice problems for the midterm are available on the solutions page of the course website. Use the solutions link in the left-hand navigation bar. The solutions to PS 1 and PS 2 are also posted.

Note: Please note that the solutions will not show up until you log in with your Harvard ID and password. To do that, click the "Login" button in the top-right corner after you navigate to the solutions page.

February 20

The midterm exam will be held on March 6 at our usual lecture time and location. The exam will be one hour long, and it will cover everything up to and including the material on storage and indexing.

You can download a practice midterm here, along with some additional review problems. Please note that these review problems are not comprehensive.

If you are a distance-education student, please review the exam policy and make whatever arrangements are needed ASAP.

February 11

Office hours begin this week. See the staff page for more information.

January 30

Tonight's lecture can be watched live via streaming video, beginning at 7:40 Eastern time. If you get a message saying that no live events are available, wait a brief time and then refresh the page in your browser.

The notes for tonight's lecture are available on the lectures page of this site. Use the lectures link on the left-hand navigation bar.

Please complete Problem Set 0 ASAP. It will help you prepare for your work in the course.

In addition, Problem Set 1 is available on the assignments page of this site. Use the assignments link at left to access it. It is due before the start of lecture on February 13.

Welcome to Computer Science E-268!

The first lecture will be held on Wednesday, January 30, 2013, at 1 Story Street 306 from 7:40-9:40 p.m. The lecture will also available via both live streaming video and recorded video. We will post an announcement with details about how to watch the streaming video on the day of the first lecture.

The key details of the course can be accessed using the links at left. For more information, consult the syllabus or contact Dr. Sullivan.

Please check this page regularly throughout the semester for announcements and course materials.

Course Information

Description

This course covers the fundamental concepts of information management. Topics include data models (relational, object-oriented, and others); implementation techniques of database management systems (indexing structures, concurrency control, recovery, and query processing); management of unstructured and semistructured data; and scientific data collections.

Instructor

David G. Sullivan, Ph.D.
Lecturer on Computer Science, Boston University
see the staff page for contact info.

Prerequisites

Computer Science E-119 or the equivalent, and proficiency in Java, C, or C++.

Requirements

• problem sets: five assignments including a combination of written exercises and programming problems. Programming problems must be completed in Java, C, or C++, and they must compile and run on the nice.fas.harvard.edu cluster of Linux machines. While you are welcome to use your own computer to work on the assignments, you will need to upload the programs to the nice.fas machines and test and submit them there.
  Important note: The problem sets tend to be fairly time-consuming. You should plan on devoting approximately 10-20 hours of work per week to complete them. If you have other major time commitments, you should reconsider whether to take this course.
• midterm exam
• final exam

Policies

• Policy on collaboration and academic honesty
• Lateness: Homework must be submitted electronically by the date and time listed on the assignment. There will be a 10% deduction for homework that is up to four days late (by the end of the day on Sunday), and a 20% deduction for homework that is 5-7 days late (by the start of the next week's lecture). We will not accept any homework that is more than 7 days late. Plan your time carefully, and don't wait until the last minute to begin an assignment. Starting early will give you ample time to ask questions and obtain assistance from members of the course staff.
• Determining the final grade:
  • problem sets: 50%
  • midterm exam: 17%
  • final exam: 33%
  The exams will count for a total of 65% (and the problem sets 35%) if doing so improves your final grade.

Textbooks

• Computer Science E-268 coursepack.
• optional: Database Systems: The Complete Book (2nd edition) by Hector Garcia-Molina, Jeff Ullman, and Jennifer Widom (ISBN 978-0131873254, Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009).