CS 848: Advanced Topics in Databases: Distributed Information Systems

Logistics

Instructor

    Khuzaima Daudjee
    Office: DC 3106
    E-mail:
    Office hours: by appointment

Meeting time

    Mondays 1:00 - ~3:30pm in MC 2036A.

Web site

Course description

    Distributed information systems is an active area of research at the intersection of distributed systems and database systems. The course is intended to provide students with enough background to enable them to understand the current research being done in the field, and to pursue research in the area.

    Distributed information systems come in different flavours, e.g. web-based systems, data in the cloud, etc. These systems are usually composed of multiple tiers, e.g. application server, web server, etc., and increasingly rely on a data (tier) to service requests from, and provide information to, clients from around the globe. Cloud data management involves the deployment of these tiers onto hardware and software that seems elastic and provides scalability. This course will look at research problems and solutions in these areas. Some specific topics we will look at are:

    • consistency and scalability through data replication, partitioning, caching, load balancing
    • web-based data management
    • cloud data management

Course Textbook

    The course is based on a reading list from recent conferences and journals. There is no required textbook for the course.

Workload and Evaluation

    I will give an introductory lecture, then we will read two to three papers every week. You are expected to read the papers before class. Over the course of the term, each student will present two papers in class and review 5 papers over the duration of the course. There will be a project, conducted in groups of two or three students. The term project will be selected and defined by the student(s). There will be no assignments or exams. Your grade in the course will be determined as follows:

    • Paper presentations - 20%
    • Paper reviews - 15%
    • Term project - 50%
    • Class participation - 15%

Academic Integrity