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Overview

The main objective of this graduate-level course is to provide an in-depth understanding of advanced concepts and research directions in the field of databases. The course is organized in three parts: (i) Fundamentals of Database Systems Implementation; (ii) Distributed, Web and Cloud Databases; (iii) Spatio-temporal Data Management, Sensor Data Management, other selected and advanced topics from the recent scientific literature.

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Content

• Fundamentals of modern Database Management Systems (DBMSs): storage, indexing, query optimization, transaction processing, concurrency and recovery. • Fundamentals of Distributed DBMSs, Web Databases and Cloud Databases (NoSQL / NewSQL): Semi-structured data management (XML/JSON, XPath and XQuery), Document data-stores (i.e., CouchDB, MongoDB, RavenDB), Key-Value data-stores (e.g., BerkeleyDB, MemCached), Introduction to Cloud Computing (NFS, GFS/Hadoop HDFS, Replication/Consistency Principles), Big-data processing/analytic frameworks (Apache MapReduce/PIG, Spark/Shark), Column-stores (e.g., Google's BigTable, Apache's HBase, Apache's Cassandra), Graph databases (e.g., Twitter’s FlockDB) and Overview of NewSQL (Google's Spanner/F1). • Spatio-temporal data management (trajectories, privacy, analytics) and index structures (e.g., R-Trees, Grid Files) as well as other selected and advanced topics, including: Embeeded Databases (sqlite), Sensor / Smartphone / Crowd data management, Energy-aware data management, Flash storage, Stream Data Management, etc. The last part of the course will feature both invited talks from external invited speakers and the presentations of students.
Syllabus (in greek) »

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News

• AS5 Map Reduce Data Management assignment 5 has been posted!
• AS4 CouchDB assignment posted!
• AS3 topic assignment posted on Moodle!
• AS3 The technical research paper reading list has been posted. Please follow the instructions posted on Moodle!
• Overview Papers (AS2) presentation and discussion scheduled for Thursday, March 16, 2023, 13:30-18:00 in ΘΕΕ01-023. Presentations and papers are available under the reading list.
• Midterm scheduled on Tuesday, March 10, 2023, 15:00-16:15 in ΧΩΔ02-115. Please see the schedule for further details.
• AS2 The overview research paper reading list has been posted. Please follow the instructions posted on Moodle!
• AS1 Minibase assignment has been posted!
• ACM SIGMOD Contest this programming contest is the premier world-wide competition in DBs co-organized by MIT. The highest rankings of UCY students in the contest over the years are as follows:
  • 2015: ranked 5th (Topic: Concurrent Transaction Processing and Validation System). Congrats to Lambros Petrou, George Koummeto and Marios Mintzis
  • 2014: ranked 9th (Topic: Social Network Analysis System). Congrats to Lambros Petrou, Marios Mintzis and George Koummeto.
  • 2013: ranked 10th (Topic: Parallel Document Matching with TRIES). Congrats to Lambros Petrou, George Koummetou, George Larkou.
  • 2011: ranked 6th (Topic: A Durable Main-Memory Index Using Flash). Congrats to George Constantinou, Marios Constantinides and Silouanos Nicolaou.
  • 2010: ranked 9th (Topic: Distributed Query Engine). Congrats to Fotos Fragkoudis, Andriani Stylianou, Onisiforos Onisiforou.
• Welcome to EPL646 (Spring 2023)! Please sign up to our course management platform to access the course forum and assignment submission area.

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Schedule »

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Laboratory »

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Readings »

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Assignments

AS1 Minibase Assignment | Due: W5 | PDF | ZIP

AS2 Overview Paper | Due: W8 | LIST

AS3 Research Paper | Due: W13 and W14 LIST

AS4 CouchDB Assignment | Due: W12 | PDF

AS5 MapReduce (Apache Hadoop or Spark) Assignment | Due: W14 | PDF | ZIP

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Bibliography

• Slides Lecture slides and articles from the recent scientific literature.
• Silberschatz Database System Concepts, 7th Edition, by Abraham Silberschatz, Henry Korth, S. Sudarshan, McGraw Hill; 7th edition, 1376 pages, ISBN-10: 0078022150, 2019.
• Elmasri Fundamentals of Database Systems, 7/E Ramez Elmasri, Shamkant B. Navathe, ISBN-10: 0133970779, ISBN-13: 9780133970, 2016
• Abiteboul Web Data Management, Serge Abiteboul, Ioana Manolescu, Philippe Rigaux, Marie-Christine Rousset, Pierre Senellart; ISBN-10: 1107012430, ISBN-13: 978-110701243, Cambridge University Press, 450 pages, (available online), 2011.
• Özsu Principles of Distributed Database Systems, Özsu, M. Tamer, Valduriez, Patrick, 3rd Edition, 846 p., Springer Press, 2011.
• Ramakrishnan Database Management Systems: Paperback Edition, 3 Edition, Raghu Ramakrishnan and Johannes Gehrke, McGraw-Hill Publishers, Paper; 1065 pp, ISBN: 0-07-123057-2, 2003.

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Links

It is assumed that students have successfully completed a DB-I (or equivalent) course. Having a solid programming background as well as an adequate UNIX background will be useful.

• EPL342 Databases I (ER Modeling, SQL, DB Programming, Normalization)
• EPL371 Systems Programming (All basic UNIX commands and concepts)
• EPL232 Programming Techniques and Tools (low-level programming, basic data structures, documentation, unit testing)
• Minibase Minibase is a relational database management system intended for educational use.
• CouchDB Apache CouchDB is a database that uses JSON for documents, JavaScript for MapReduce indexes, and regular HTTP for its API.
• Hadoop Apache Hadoop is an open-source software for reliable, scalable, distributed computing.
• Spark Apache Spark is a fast and general engine for large-scale data processing.
• Flink Apache Flink - Stateful Computations over Data Streams.