Introduction

Welcome to CSCI 1270!

Link to previous course offering.

The concepts you will learn in this class include aspects of database design, database languages, and database-system implementation. The course textbook is Database Systems Concepts, Seventh Edition by Silberschatz, Korth, and Sudarshan. ISBN: 9780078022159. Lectures are held on Mondays and Wednesdays from 3:00 pm to 4:20 pm virtually via Zoom unless otherwise specified. Optional in-person seminars are held on Friday at the same time. Please stop on by!

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Shopping Period FAQ

Will this course be accessible to remote students?

• Yes, all lectures will be delivered virtually. Lectures will also be recorded and timezone accommodations will be given for quizzes. Details regarding TA Hours are still being ironed out.

What is the weekly workload for CSCI 1270? Any time commitment estimates?

• There will be weekly written homeworks and coding assignments, with more time given to accommodate more complex tasks. Time commitments are tricky to estimate, because there's a large variance from student to student. But we're putting a lot of structure in place that should make this course very manageable.

I've heard this course will be run in Golang and SQL; should I prepare?

• While knowing the working language will only help you, we do not expect anybody to come into this course knowing either Golang or SQL. There will be space dedicated to learning Go and SQL.

I need an override code! I need to enroll concurrently with another course! I have another special request that requires instructor permission!

• Please email us at cs1270headtas@lists.brown.edu.

Can I audit this class?

• We do not allow students to audit CSCI 1270. This is primarily because a significant proportion of your learning will happen through implementing the projects, which must be engaged with fully in order for the course to progress; a result of our cumulative assignments. However, if you are only interested in loosely following along the lectures and assignments, we encourage you to Vagabond the class instead - all of our content is open to all Brown students!

Can anyone attend the seminars?

• Yes! Our Friday seminars are open to the entire Brown community - please, drop by!

{Any other question}

• Wait! Before you ask, please read our Missive (linked below in the resources section)! If that doesn't answer your question, then please email our Head TA mailing list at cs1270headtas@lists.brown.edu!

Assignments

Please note: the dates on this page are tentative and may change to correspond with changes in lecture pacing.

All weekly written and coding assignments should be turned in via Gradescope. All assignments will be released by 11:59 PM on the day listed. All assignments are due at 11:59 pm ET on the day listed. They will be graded and returned with solutions for the problems. Written assignments should be submitted as PDFs.

All quizzes will be available through Gradescope on the day listed below. Once you've started, you will have 90 minutes to complete the quiz.

Late Assignments

Each student gets 5 late days during the semester, in that they are not penalized for them. You may not use more than 2 late days on a single assignment. At the end of the semester, we will optimally distribute the late days over your projects. A late day used on either the written or code portion of an assignment counts as a late day for the assignment as a whole. After your five late days, we will take off 25% per late day, distributed optimally.

Solution Code Requests

Since projects in CSCI 1270 build atop one another, we recognize that if a student falls behind, later projects will be impossible. If you require solution code to continue in the course, please fill out the form linked here to request it. You will only receive solution code two days after the due date of the relevant project due date(s) at the earliest. Most importantly, note that distributing or making available solution code in any way, knowingly or unknowingly, is a violation of the Academic Code. This includes sharing code with a peer in the class, even if they have also filled out the request form. For the most up-to-date information on solution code requests, please see our Missive.

Lectures

Lectures are held on Mondays and Wednesdays from 3:00 pm to 4:20 pm virtually via Zoom unless otherwise specified. Lecture slides and recordings will be posted soon after lecture ends. You are highly encouraged to attend all lectures.

The following lecture schedule is very approximate. Please note that the schedule may be subject to change depending how quickly or slowly we are able to move through lectures.

Seminars

To spread our love of databases and to expose you to cutting edge database concepts, the CSCI 1270 TAs run seminars on Fridays from 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm, in-person in CIT Lubrano (477). Recordings will be posted soon after the seminar ends. You are highly encouraged to attend any seminars that interest you!

The following seminar schedule is very approximate. Please note that the schedule may be subject to change depending on TA availability.

Calendar

Zoom links are included in the Google Calendar event, as well as in the SignMeUp Queue.

Resources

Guides

• Course Guide
• Local Development Guide
• Guide to Golang
• Guide to SQL

Documents

• Missive
• Collaboration Policy

Contact

• cs1270headtas@lists.brown.edu
• cs1270tas@lists.brown.edu

Staff