Corso di laurea magistrale in Informatica

The students should be familiar with the basic concepts of set theory and logic. They should have acquired the ability to design fundamental algorithms and to program using high-level languages. Moreover, they should possess a basic knowledge of operating systems.
Preparatory Courses (providing the expected entry skills): Logic, Discrete Mathematics, Programming 1 and 2, Operating Systems.

The course contributes to the achievement of the specific educational objectives of the Laurea Magistrale in Informatica programme (LM18), more specifically among those concerning the "sistemi per il trattamento dell'informazione" area, by providing an introduction to databases and their management systems (DBMS). It is therefore proposed to provide students with the theoretical and practical skills for the design and management of databases and the mastery of the instruments to analyse, design, develop and manage databases.

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course, students should know:

• the mathematical foundations of the relational model,
• the languages used to express queries in relational algebra, relational calculus and SQL,
• the foundations of the theory of normalization,
• the usage of transactions and the theory behind it,
• the data structures used to efficiently record information.

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course, students will be able to:

• transform textual queries into SQL queries.

INDEPENDENT JUDGEMENT

At the end of the course, students will know how to:

• design and implement queries of various complexity.

COMMUNICATION SKILLS

At the end of the course, students will be able to:

• present, in written form, the definition and properties of the relational model and its query languages.

LEARNING SKILLS
At the end of the course, students will have acquired the skills to study independently and self-assess their knowledge, so that they will be able to continue to higher leves of education with a high degree of autonomy.

Theoretical foundations of relational databases (4 ECTS, 32 hours):

• Introduction to information systems and databases
• The relational model
• Relational algebra and design of algebra expressions
• Introduction to the relational calculus,
• Introcution to transactions
• Introduction to DBMS architetures: data storage, data independence, reliability, concurrency

SQL laboratory (2 ECTS, 20 hours)

• SQL laboratory in Oracle/PostgreSQL
  1. The SQL language and standards
  2. Data definition in SQL (DDL)
  3. Data manipulation in SQL (DML)
  4. Queries in SQL (DML/DQL) and design of SQL expression

The course consists of lectures (32 hours) and interactive laboratory activities (20 hours), organised in 2- or 3-hour lessons, depending on the academic schedule. Mock examinations, consisting of exercises aimed at testing the students' mastery in the course topics, will be organized and will be carried out collectively in class hours.

Attendance is optional, but suggested. The same method will be adopted to test the knowledge and skills acquired by both attenders and non-attenders.

Students are required to enroll to the course on the Moodle e-learning environment: here, they will find a discussion forum, course material and practice assignments. The exam consists of a written test. The written exam consists of six to eight questions, aimed at testing students' knowledge of the fundamental concepts covered during the course. Two or three questions concern SQL, while the remaining ones concern theory topics. Grades will be expressed on a 30-point scale.

Further course material will be provided by the teachers.