Syllabus

Course Goals

Data is at the heart of modern commercial application development, and its use includes environments and domains where large amounts of data must be stored for efficient update, retrieval, and analysis. The purpose of this course is to provide a comprehensive introduction to the use of management systems for applications. Some of the topics covered are the following: relational data model, structured query language SQL, transactions, cost estimation, physical algorithms, and parallel data processing.

Inclusiveness and Respect

You should expect and demand to be treated by your classmates and the course staff with respect. You belong here, and we are here to help you learn and enjoy a challenging course. Likewise, I expect you to follow the UW Student Conduct Code in your interactions with your colleagues and me in this course by respecting the many social and cultural differences among us, which may include, but are not limited to: age, cultural background, disability, ethnicity, family status, gender identity and presentation, citizenship and immigration status, national origin, race, religious and political beliefs, sex, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and veteran status. If any incident occurs that challenges this commitment to a supportive and inclusive environment, please let Anna know so the issue can be addressed. Should you feel uncomfortable bringing up an issue with Anna directly, consider submitting anonymous feedback or contacting the Office of the Ombud.

Assessments

Lecture Activities

In-class activities are done on paper, during class, and collected at the end of lecture. Activities are not graded on correctness, but on effort. The goal of these is to break up lecture and exercise the thinking approach or technical material we're covering.

To receive 100% in this category you need to complete at least 17 of the 23 lecture activities. We allow for missing about a quarter of the activities to account for illness, scheduling, oversleeping etc. Plan to attend every lecture, and skip only when you need to!

Staff Check-ins

We will have 2 staff check-ins during the quarter. These check-ins will consist of a short gradescope assignment and a 5-10 minute check-in with a staff member during any office hours. The first check-in takes place during weeks 2-4 and the second during weeks 7-8.

Section Participation

This course is designed to introduce concepts in lectures and give you practice with them in sections. As a result, trying the problems associated with each section is extremely important for success in the course.

Each week, TAs will record everyone who came to section and participated. "Participated" means you're working on the problems, and talking with those around you. To receive 100% in this category you need to participate in 5 out of the 8 sections.

Homework

We will have six week-long homework assignments. Homeworks are both a chance for you to improve your understanding, prepare for exams, and for us to provide you with feedback. This work will not be graded for correctness. Instead, students will receive full points for submitting a solution that shows a good faith effort for each problem. Students should do their best to try to answer each question correctly. The TAs will review these submissions in order to give students feedback on where points might have been lost had the problems been graded. Students should take time to carefully review all the TA feedback when it is released, as the next attempt to solve problems like these will be graded for correctness.

Although you are encouraged to discuss the problems with one another, you must still write up solutions on your own. More details are included in the academic integrity policy.

Course Project

We have a single large course project during the end of the quarter, which synthesizes your understanding of many concepts, including SQL queries, schema design, and programming. To help with time management, we've broken this project into 2 parts. The project will be graded for correctness with some components being graded by TAs and others with an autograder. You are expected to view the autograder output and resubmit as needed. Partial credit for code correctness will not be granted.

Although you are encouraged to discuss the project with one another, you must still write up solutions on your own. More details are included in the academic integrity policy.

Quizzes

We will have six in-person quizzes during the first 10-15 minutes of lecture on Fridays. Coming late to class may result in having less time to complete the quiz. Only your top four quiz scores will be factored into your quiz grade, this means that you can miss up to two quizzes and still get full credit for the quizzes. Makeups for quizzes will not be offered as we will go over the solutions right after the quiz is completed. Topics for the quizzes will be shared ahead of time. Reviewing lecture activities and working through section problems will help you prepare. The goal of the quizzes is to give you an opportunity to test your understanding of the concepts before the exams.

Midterm

We will have an in-person midterm during lecture time on Wednesday July 22nd at 2:20pm. Coming late to class may result in having less time to complete the midterm. The goal of the midterm is to prepare you for the final and check in with where you are at with the content. Details about the midterm and practice material will be shared a week in advance of the midterm. If the midterm is missed due to extenuating circumstances, please email Anna as soon as you can, so that we can discuss your options.

Midterm Retake

We will have an in-person midterm retake during lecture time on Monday August 17th at 2:20pm. Coming late to class may result in having less time to complete the midterm retake. Learning happens throughout the quarter, so this is an opportunity to demonstrate mastery of the midterm material and an opportunity for some extra practice that will be helpful in preparing for the final.

This retake is entirely optional. If you choose to take the retake, 90% of your score will come from the best score and 10% of your score will come from the retake. If you choose to not take the retake, 100% of your score will come from the midterm. If the midterm retake is missed due to extenuating circumstances, please email Anna as soon as you can, so that we can discuss your options.

Final

We will have an in-person final exam that will be split into two parts. The first half of the final will take place in DEM 104 on August 20th during your scheduled section time. The second half of the final will take place during lecture time August 21st at 2:20pm. Coming late to either parts may result in having less time to complete the final. The final will be cumulative. Details about the final and practice material will be shared a week in advance of the final. If the final is missed due to extenuating circumstances, please email Anna as soon as you can, so that we can discuss your options.

Regrade Requests

The course staff is made up of people, that means we sometimes make mistakes! When those mistakes happen in grading, we want to correct them.

Regrade timing

• Regrades will be submitted on Gradescope. We will open regrade requests approximately 24 hours after scores and feedback is released, and will remain open for one-week (except for the last assignment and final exam, where grade submission deadlines will limit the amount of time we have---even for these assignments, we will have a window to request regrades, just a shorter one).
• If you believe you were graded incorrectly, then your regrade requests should address the TA feedback and your solution, e.g., "The feedback says my formula is incorrect, but my formula is actually equivalent to the one listed in the solution."
• If you have taken a look at the solutions and are still confused about the rubric items that were applied, it is preferred that you file a regrade request for clarification purposes instead of making an Ed post. This is because regrade requests go directly to the TA that graded your submission.
• Please remember that people are reading your regrade requests, and phrase regrade requests professionally and respectfully.

Regrade appeals

• TAs will respond via Gradescope to regrade requests when they can. Note that this is frequently weeks after a regrade is filed, as TAs are grading the next homework by the time all regrade requests are filed.
• If you wish to appeal a regrade request (because the TA has responded to your request, but you still believe your answer is correct) or you miss the regrade window but still want a regrade, contact Anna (either via private Ed post or email).
• Appeal and late regrades are only granted for clear errors (e.g., your calculation was correct even though a TA marked it incorrect). We do not alter rubrics, switch which rubric item was applied, or change any "judgement calls"
at this stage.

Assigning course grades

Grades will be based on lecture activities, staff check-ins, section participation, homework, course project, quizzes, a midterm (or midterm and midterm retake), and a final. Please note that these breakdowns are preliminary as this class is constantly evolving and we reserve the right to change them.

• Lecture Activities: 10%
• Staff Check-ins: 2.5%
• Section Participation: 2.5%
• Homework: 10%
• Course Project: 5%
• Quizzes: 15%
• Midterm: 25%
• Final: 30%

Students often wonder whether the class is "curved." For example, whether the median course grade must be some specified value, or if we have a maximum amount of "good" grades we can assign. We do not "curve" in either of these senses. We do, though, look at the performance of students this quarter relative to other quarters (especially where assessments were similar) to try to keep grades consistent between different quarters (that is that similar levels of understanding of the content would lead to similar grades). This process means that before we have collected all the grades, we don't know exactly where gradebreaks will be.

Academic Integrity

You will only learn effectively if you complete the intellectual work of this course. As part of this, we require that you be honest with course staff in all exchanges. We are required by UW to report all violations of academic integrity policies to CSSC.

Be sure that you are able to explain and/or re-derive anything that you submit. If we have doubts about whether you did the work on your own, we may ask you to come in and explain your solution to us verbally.

If you feel inclined to cheat because you are anxious, overwhelmed, overburdened, or out of time, please reach out to Anna and we'll figure out how you can succeed. We would much rather come up with an alternative set of deadlines, plans for making up work, etc. for you than submit an integrity case!

Collaboration

You are allowed (and encouraged!) to discuss homework problems with other students, as long as you:

• Do not take away any notes or screenshots during your discussion.
• Take a 30 minute break before writing up your solution individually.
• Cite the names of all of your collaborators in the feedback question on Gradescope for that homework.

If you are confused as to whether or not some collaboration is allowed, ask us! No set of rules will be completely exhaustive.

If something weird happens, please tell us too! We will not consider any action to be a violation of the academic integrity policy if you tell us about it before turning in the assignment.

Artificial Intelligence (ChatGPT, LLMs, etc.)

You may not utilize artificial intelligence or machine learning systems (e.g., ChatGPT) on any assignments. That means you may not plug the homework problems into these systems (even if you later put the response in your own words), nor can you put a draft submission into the system to use the system for editing purposes. You may not use generative AI (even if it is built into your IDE) to assist with programming for the homework or course project.

Scenarios

What happened?	Is it a violation?
You and a friend separately write up solutions, then compare. Your friend suggests that your conclusion is a little unclear. You formulate a new conclusion on the Zoom call together.	Violation! That is no longer your individual writeup.
You and a friend separately write up solutions, then compare. Your friend suggests changing one of your final answers. You wait 30 minutes, then return to your writeup, decide the changes would be improvements, and incorporate them.	Not a violation! Minor rewordings and technical changes done by you after discussion (and a break!) are fine. The writeup is still substantially yours.
You are stuck on how to write a query, so you copy the problem and ask an LLM to give you the query.	Violation! That is no longer your work.

Course Tools

Ed

Ed is our discussion board and the right place to ask any questions about the course.

We will happily answer questions from lecture or about general concepts. We also will answer clarifications about homework (e.g. correcting typos). Students are encouraged to answer each other’s questions on the message board as well.

If you have a question that might reveal your approach or the solution to a homework problem, you must ask the question privately. For accommodations and other private questions, you can ask privately on Ed or email Anna. Only you and the course staff can see a private question on Ed.

Gradescope

Gradescope is the tool to turn in completed assignments. After grading, you can also find our feedback there and submit regrade requests if needed.

You will get an automatic email with account setup instructions at the start of the quarter.

Canvas

We will not be consistently updating canvas. Information on canvas may be partial or inaccurate for large portions of the quarter, you should not rely on it for this course. We may use canvas's gradebook at the end of the quarter, but we will announce which information should be relied on and when.

Zoom

Zoom is how meetings that must be virtual will be delivered. That includes at least some office hours throughout the quarter. You can find meeting IDs in a pinned post on the Ed discussion board.

Office Hours: You can attend any Office Hours, not just the ones held by the TA who teaches your section. They do get busier closer to deadlines, so it is better to attend them early and throughout the week.

Zoom meetings will be restricted to accounts logged in with @uw.edu email addresses. If you have trouble joining a meeting, make sure you choose the “Sign in with SSO” option.

Additional Resources

Office Hours and One-on-Ones

If you have conceptual questions or need assistance debugging your assignments, we strongly recommend attending office hours.

We recognize that not every question is appropriate for office hours, however. For example, you may wish to discuss your extenuating circumstances, need support/advice for a personal issue, or have follow-up questions from a previous office hour. In these circumstances, we recommend requesting a one-on-one.

Textbooks

There is no required textbook for the course, but you may find these resources useful.

• Recommended readings refer to Database Systems: The Complete Book (2nd Edition) (errata here)
• Fundamentals of Database Systems, by Elsmasri and Navathe
• Database Management Systems, by Raghu Ramakrishnan and Johannes Gehrke
• Foundations of Database Systems, by Abiteboul, Hull and Vianu

Anonymous Feedback

You can send anonymous feedback to Anna via this form. Note that she cannot respond to you directly.

Accommodations and Extenuating Circumstances

Your performance in this course should not be affected by circumstances beyond your control. We recognize that our students come from varied backgrounds and can have widely-varying circumstances. If you have any unforeseen or extenuating circumstance that arise during the course, we can still work with you for situations other than the university-wide accommodations. If you have any unforeseen or extenuating circumstance that arise during the course, please do not hesitate to contact the staff to discuss your situation. The sooner we are made aware, the more easily these situations can be resolved. Extenuating circumstances may include:

• Work-school balance
• Familial responsibilities
• Military duties
• Unexpected travel
• Acute health issues (notably: recall that mental health is still health)
• Concerns for personal safety
• ... or anything else beyond your control which may negatively impact your performance in the class

Health, disability, and similar accommodations

If you have, or think you may have, a temporary health condition or permanent disability, contact Disability Resources for Students (DRS) to get started with accommodations. In some prior quarters, DRS has become overwhelmed with new requests and were slow to process them. We strongly recommend reaching out as soon as possible, as we are unable to provide certain accommodations (e.g., extra testing time) except as decided on by DRS.

Religious Accommodations

“Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy (/staff-faculty/religious-accommodations-policy/). Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form (/students/religious-accommodations-request/).”

What happens if I get sick?

Additional accommodations (e.g. late days or longer extensions on specific assignments) may be possible if you have an extended illness. Contact Anna as soon as possible if your illness is severe or extends for a long period.

Don't come to lecture and don't come to section. You can miss up to 6 of the lecture activities and 3 section participations. We will be recording lectures and posting to Panopto so you can keep up/catch back up when you're healthy.

What if I get sick right before a quiz?

Don't come to a quiz if you're sick! Two quizzes will be dropped to account for sicknesses during the quarter.

What if I get sick right before an exam?

Don't come to the exam if you're sick! Contact Anna once you know you're too sick to attend, and we will discuss your options.