IS 455 Database Design and Prototyping

Professor Adler's Fall 2026 Dynamic Course Outline

This schedule is tentative and may change throughout the semester.
All work must be submitted on time! All work is due Tuesdays no later than 9:30am.
All lecture notes can be found on Canvas.

Download Syllabus [PDF] [WORD]
Week Topic Readings Videos Homework
1: Aug 25 Introduction

In Class Activity 		Chapter 1
  1. File-Based Systems
  2. More on DBMS
  3. Advantages and Disadvantages of DBMS
2: Sep 1 Database Environment / Architecture Chapters 2-3
  1. Three Level Architecture: External, Conceptual, and Internal
  2. Data Independence
  3. Relational Data Model vs. Network and Hierarchical
  4. Multi-User DBMS Architectures: Teleprocessing, File-server architecture, Traditional two-tier client–server architecture
  5. Multi-User DBMS Architectures: Three-tier Client-Server Architecture
  6. History Of DBMS

Not Graded Assignment:

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Go to the Discussion board titled Introduction.
  1. Introduce yourselves to each other (and me!). Describe yourself. What is your background? What IS courses have you taken? What programming languages do you know? What would you like to do after you graduate? What is a fun fact about yourself?
  2. Reply to at least TWO of your classmates' threads.
3: Sep 8 SQL Basics Beginning of Chapter 6
  1. Introduction to SQL
  2. phpMyAdmin in MAMP on mac (will look different on Windows; note course and semester is different)
  3. SQL: Create, Insert, and Select
  4. SQL: Update and Delete
  5. Data Types

Due Tuesday September 8 BEFORE 9:30AM

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Submit your file directly to the Assignment on Canvas titled Interviews. Interview at least one user of database systems (programmer, DBA, etc.).
Answer the following question:
  1. Where does this person work?
  2. Which DBMS does the interviewee use?
  3. What is the purpose of their database?
  4. What does this user perceive to be the advantages and disadvantages of their DBMS?
  5. Any additional question you would like to ask? Provide your question and the response.
  • In class you will have a 10 question multiple choice quiz.
  • Review chapters 1-3 (Introduction, Database Environment, and Database Architecture), watch the videos, read the lectures notes.
  • You are allowed to miss one quiz this semester as the lowest quiz score will be dropped.
4: Sep 15 SQL Continued End of Chapter 6
  1. SQL: Aggregates
  2. SQL: Group By
  3. SQL: Subquery
  4. SQL: Joins
  5. SQL: Joining an Ambiguous Column
  6. SQL-LeftOuterJoin

Due Tuesday September 15 BEFORE 9:30AM

  1. SQL Basics Assignment
5: Sep 22 Relational Model Beginning of Chapter 4 and 7
  1. Choosing Primary Keys
  2. Composite Primary Keys
  3. Foreign Keys
  4. SQL: Primary Keys
  5. SQL: Foreign Keys
  6. SQL: Alter
  7. SQL: auto_increment

Due Tuesday September 22 BEFORE 9:30AM

  1. SQL Continued Assignment
  2. Study for Quiz: Study SQL Basics+Continued as there will be a quiz in class
6: Sep 29 Views and More End of Chapter 4 and 7 Adler Videos:
  1. SQL: Views
  2. Stored Procedures

Other Videos:
  1. Professor Iacobelli's video on Indexes

Due Tuesday September 29 BEFORE 9:30AM

  1. SQL Relational Assignment
  2. Study for Quiz: Study SQL Relational as there will be a quiz in class
7: Oct 6 DBMS Lifecycle/Fact-Finding Techniques Chapters 10-11

Due Tuesday October 6 BEFORE 9:30AM

  1. SQL Views Assignment
8: Oct 13 Midterm Exam and Project Planning Review Sheet for Midterm Exam

Due Tuesday October 13 BEFORE 9:30AM

  1. Study for Midterm
9: Oct 20 ER Modeling A Practical Introduction to Databases

Videos: Chen's Notation:
  1. Entities and Relationships
  2. Attributes
  3. Entities, Relationships, and Attributes
  4. Relationship with Attributes
  5. Cardinality
  6. Unary/Recurisve Relationship
  7. Ternary ER Diagram
  8. Ternary and Binary Relationshiops
  9. Ternary and Cardinality
  10. Participation
  11. Total Participation, Another Example
A nice tool to draw ER Diagrams:
draw.io

Due Tuesday October 20 BEFORE 9:30AM

  1. Project: Choose topic, summary
10: Oct 27 ER Modeling, continued A Practical Introduction to Databases

Videos:
  1. More with Attributes (composite, multi-valued, derived)
  2. Strong vs. Weak Entity
  3. Enhanced ER Diagram/Specialization/Generalization

ER Diagram Cheatsheet:
  1. Cheatsheet for Chen's Notation (From the Connelly and Begg textbook)

Due Tuesday October 27 BEFORE 9:30AM

  1. ER Diagram Assignment (based on first ER diagram lecture)
11: Nov 3 Converting ERD to a Relational Model


Normalization		 A Practical Introduction to Databases

Chapter 14 		Converting ERD to Relational Model:
  1. Converting ERD to Relational Model
Normalization Videos:
  1. Reason_For_Normalization
  2. functional_dependency
  3. Full_and_Partial_Functional_Dependencies
  4. transitive_dependencies
  5. 1nf
  6. 1nf_violation
  7. 2nf_violation
  8. 2nf_violation_Continued
  9. 3nf_Violation
  10. 3nf_Table
  11. 3nf_-_Primary_and_Foreign_Key
Cheatseet:
  1. Normalization Cheatsheet

Due Tuesday November 3 BEFORE 9:30AM

  1. Project: ER Diagram in Chen's Notation
  2. Study for Quiz: Study ER and Enhanced ER Diagrams
12: Nov 10 Advanced Normalization and Denormalization Chapter 15 and 19
  1. BCNF
  2. Denormalization

Due Tuesday November 10 BEFORE 9:30AM

  1. Normalization Assignment
13: Nov 17 Bulk Import & Connect through Python Chapter 24-25.4
  1. Bulk_Import
  2. Inserting into DB from Python
  3. Nicer Insert from Python
  4. Select from DB from Python

Due Tuesday November 17 BEFORE 9:30AM

  1. Project: Normalization and Denormalization
14: Nov 24  Fall Break - No Homework
15: Dec 1 Database Issues & Work on Final Projects Chapters 20-21

Due Tuesday April 25 BEFORE 9:30AM

  1. Import from CSV and Interact with the DB from an Application!
15: Dec 8 NoSQL DB Videos:
  1. Professor Iacobelli's Lecture on JSON
Tutorial:
  1. INSERT: insertOne() insertMany()
  2. SELECT: findOne() find()
  3. UPDATE: updateOne() updateMany()
  4. DELETE: deleteOne() deleteMany()
  5. AGGREGATES:
  6. CHEATSHEET: MongoDB Cheat Sheet

Due Tuesday December 8 BEFORE 9:30AM

  1. Study for Quiz: Study Legal, Ethical, and Security Issues
  2. Please complete the Online Instructor Course Evaluations
Final Project Due Dec 15

Due Tuesday December 15 BEFORE 9:30AM

  1. Final Project