The class meets once per week. Most classes will consists of lecturing, but there will also be discussions. Please attend all lectures, since the material is not based on any particular text. Some of the material is available only in the lecture notes: if you miss lectures you may find it difficult to catch up.
There are no formal prerequisites for the course. However, we expect you to have some knowledge of SQL, and definitely know programming. It is preferable, but not strictly necessary, that you have already taken some introductory course in databases prior to this class.
Assignments: 50%
Reviews: 25%
Mini-Project: 25%
You will be asked to read and write short reviews for several papers. A typical review is about 1/2 to 1 page long, and should reflect your understanding and analysis of the issues raised by the paper, and should also help you for an in-class discussion on that topic. We will sometimes post some suggestions on what to focus your review on, but these are not mandatory. We will grade your review with 0, 1, or 2 points.
Sometimes students like to critique the paper, listing its biggest contribution (and, briefly, why that result was not already obvious), maybe pointing out its main weaknesses ( motivation, or methodology, or algorithm), or highlighting the biggest question raised in the paper, or the most interesting and important follow-on work that it suggests. Another possibility is to just summarize the paper, describing its motivation, approach, results, and conclusions, and stating why it is significant. The commentary should also list questions that you have about the paper, such as about technical points or connections to related work.
You are encouraged to discuss the content of this course with anyone you like. Assignments and paper reviews are done individually. The project can be done individually, or in a group of up to three students. If two teams pick the same project, we expect each team to produce original work different from that of other teams. Feel free to look-up any information on the web that you may find useful in completing the assignments, projects, or paper reviews.
postgres, Souffle, gitlab
Some excerpts from the campus policies. Take them seriously: "You must use all UW [computing] resources in strict accordance with local, state, and federal laws. These laws cover such areas as illegal access to computer systems, networks, and files; copyright violations; and harassment issues... Software and information resources provided through the university for use by faculty, staff, and students may be used on computing equipment only as specified in the various software licenses. Unauthorized use of software, images, or files is regarded as a serious matter and any such use is without the consent of the University of Washington...If abuse of computer software, images, or files occurs, those responsible for such abuse will be held legally accountable."