COSI 120a
Topics in Systems: Querying the Web

Spring, 2000

Final Project Presentations

Final project write-ups were due on Tuesday, May 2 at the start of class. Final project presentations were held on May 2 during class, and on May 3 at 8:00 PM.

Presentations on May 2, 10:40 AM

Not necessarily in this order:

Presentations on May 3, 8:00 PM

Not necessarily in this order:

Description:

The web can be viewed as the largest and most highly distributed database in existence. But databases can be queried, and as yet there is only primitive support (i.e., search engines) for querying the web. The trend towards the use of XML as the language of web documents and data makes more sophisticated querying possible. In this course, we'll consider the research issues and applications of this direction for the web.

This course will try to bridge the work of two research communities: the systems community concerned with optimizing web performance, and the database community concerned with providing support for querying. The course itself will be structured into two distinct parts. The first half of the course will be textbook, lecture and assignment-oriented, and will culminate with a midterm on Friday, February 25. The second half of the course will more resemble a seminar, with student presentations, papers and a final project.

Logistics:

Professor:

Prof. Mitch Cherniack (mfc@cs.brandeis.edu)
Office: Volen 137, x62738
Office Hours: Tue, 1-3 (or by appointment)

TAs:

Xiaoyu Wang (wangxy@cs.brandeis.edu)
Office: Volen 136
Office Hours: W 10-12

Daming Li (ldm@cs.brandeis.edu)
Office: Volen 136
Office Hours: M 3-5

Where and When:

Meeting Place: Volen 105
Meeting Time: 10:30-12:00 T, F
Web Page: http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~cs120a/index.html
Class Newsgroup: news:brandeis.classes.cs120a

Course Requirements:

Prerequisites:

The course prerequisite for COSI 120a is COSI 127, or the permission of the instructor. Students who haven't taken COSI 127 will need to do extra work during the first week of class. Namely, they must read about relations, SQL, the relational algebra and relational query processing in the COSI 127 text, Database System Concepts. As well, they must complete an additional written assignment (Asst 0) on these topics. Acceptable work on this assignment will result in "permission of the instructor" to take this course.

Readings

This course will be reading-intensive, with readings drawn from three texts and numerous papers. The texts for this course are:

The first of these texts was the text for COSI 127 in Spring '99. There are 2 copies available of this text on reserve in the Science Library. The latter two texts are available in the bookstore.

Calendar:

We meet on Tuesdays and Fridays from 10:30-12 in Volen 105, with the following exceptions: The full calendar for this course, complete with topics for each class, required readings and assignment due dates can be seen here.

Evaluation:

Your grade for this course will be based on your performance on two written assignments (three for students who have not taken COSI 127), a midterm exam, a class presentation, a final project proposal and the final project itself. As well, attendance and class participation will figure into your final grade.

Late Policy

A late assignment will lose 20% for every day or part thereof that it is late. Therefore, an assignment which is due on Friday at 10:40 will be graded as follows. Assume that the assignment is worth a grade of 100% before any late penalty is applied. If that assignment is submitted between Friday at 10:41 and Monday at 10:40, then it will receive a grade of 80%. If it is submitted between Monday at 10:41 and Tuesday at 10:40, it will receive a grade of 60%. If it is submitted between Tuesday at 10:41 and Wednesday at 10:40, it will receive a grade of 40% etc.

Collaboration Policy

Collaboration is not permitted on the assignments. You should see the TAs for help or an explanation. You are responsible for protecting your homework directories so that others cannot view them or copy them. Failure to do so constitutes a violation of academic integrity. To protect a unix directory called "homework", "chmod og-rwx homework".

Grade Apportionment

Grades will be apportioned roughly as follows:

Class Participation, Attendance and Class Presentation (25%):

Aside from attendance and class participation, in the second half of the course you will be responsible for a class presentation on a preassigned topic. For these presentations, the class will be divided into either four or eight groups. Each group will be responsible for presenting material from the Data on the Web text, as well as from papers that will be assigned, and will be given one or two classes to present this material. These presentations will require: participation from all members of the group; and approval from me on a presentation plan a week prior to the presentation. We will discuss these presentations further in a special class on Tuesday, February 22.

Assignments (10%):

There will be two written assignments (3 for students who have not taken COSI 127) assigned during the first half of the course. Assignment 0 (for students who did not take COSI 127) will be handed out on 1/21 and be due on 1/28. Assignment 1 will be handed out on 2/1 and due on 2/8. Assignment 2 will be handed out on 2/11 and due on 2/18.

Midterm (15%):

There will be a midterm exam during class on Friday, February 25.

Midterm Solutions and Grading Policy Available here.

Final Project Proposal (5%):

You and your final project group must submit a 2-3 page final project proposal describing your project plan. This proposal is due on Friday, March 10 at the start of class. We will discuss this requirement further during a special class on Tuesday, February 22. Your final project groups will be determined that same week.

Final Project (45%):

The bulk of your grade will be determined by your final project. This project can consist of a literature survey for some chosen area related to this course (and done individually), or can be a group project that tackles a research objective considered in this course. We will discuss final projects during a special class on Tuesday, February 22. The final project implementations and write-ups are due at the start of class, May 2. We will reserve the final two classes of the term to class presentations of these projects.

Ideas for the final projects and guidelines for your project proposal can be found here.

Assignments:

On-line Support

We will soon set up a newsgroup for posting and reading questions about topics relevant to this course (lectures, readings, assignments etc.) Please post all of your questions to the newsgroup, rather than sending e-mail to the instructor, except for questions that only concern you (e.g., in order to set up an appointment to meet).

We will also use the newsgroup to post announcements regarding the course. Make sure you check the postings regularly. If you are unfamiliar with how to read news, speak to a TA.

Students with Disabilities:

If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please see me immediately

Course Calendar

Seminar Schedule

Final Project Guide