https://www.inf.unibz.it/~calvanese/teaching/idb/
Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
Faculty of Engineering
Bachelor in Computer Science
Home page of
Module M1: Introduction to Databases
Part of the Course Databases
A.Y. 2026/2027
News
Content
- Course description
- General information
- Information about the exam
- Guidelines for the
project
- For students who have to take the 8CFU exam
Official syllabus and
course description
Objectives. Students attending module M1 of the Databases course will
have acquired the techniques and methods to address problems of database
design, and to make use of the basic functionalities (definition, update, and
querying of the database) of database management systems in the context of
development and deployment of information systems. In addition, students will
be able to develop applications that programmatically interact with a database
management system. The course explicitly refers to relational databases and to
the corresponding database management systems based on the SQL
language. However, the taught methods and principles are of a more general
nature, and can be applied also in those contexts where data models and
database systems different from relational ones are adopted.
Prerequisites. Students should have a solid mathematical foundation and
be familiar with the basic programming concepts, and with basic data structures
(arrays, lists, trees) and algorithms that operate on them (visits, search,
updates). These prerequisites are covered in the following courses: Discrete
Mathematics, Linear Algebra, Introduction to Programming, and Data Structures
and Algorithms (taught in parallel to this module).
Attendance. Attendance is not compulsory, but non-attending students
have to contact the lecturer at the start of the course or before starting
their studies and the project work to agree on the modalities of the
independent study.
Teaching material
- Introduction to Databases (Course Slides).
Diego Calvanese. 2026. (Obtained from an Italian version prepared in
collaboration with Giuseppe De Giacomo and Maurizio Lenzerini).
The slides will be made available during the course and can be downloaded
in MS Teams from the Class Materials folder in the MS Team for this course
module.
- Esercises solved in class.
The exercises are assigned for the lab hours, and the solutions are
made available in the week after the lab in the same Class Materials
folder in MS Teams.
- Database Management Systems (3rd edition). Raghu Ramakrishnan,
Johannes Gehrke. McGraw-Hill, 2005.
Available at University Library Bozen: 13-Textbook Collection (ST 271).
The textbook is suggested, but not strictly necessary.
- The exam mark is based on:
- a project [30% of mark]
(see the
project
guidelines for more information about the project),
and
- a written exam [70% of mark].
The final mark is computed as a weighted average of the written exam
mark (70%) and the project mark (30%).
- Written Exam:
-
To be admitted to the written exam (2), the student must have discussed
the project (1), and the project must have been evaluated positively.
In other words, without having passed the project, the written
exam cannot be taken.
-
In case of a positive mark, the project mark will count for all 3
regular exam sessions of the Academic Year (i.e., if the student fails
or does not take the written exam, they keep the project mark and only
need to retake the final written exam).
-
To pass the exam, the student has to pass also the written exam (2), in
addition to the project (1).
-
At the written exam, which lasts at least 2 hours, the student will
have to carry out the design of a small database, following a given
specification. Moreover they will have to write down some SQL queries,
and possibly answer in written form some questions about the topics
covered in the course.
-
The written exam is a closed-book exam, meaning that the only allowed
resources are blank paper and pens (in addition to one's own brain, of
course). However, each student may use a
single handwritten A4 page (one side) that contains
information they consider useful for solving the exam exercises. These
notes should be personal, and not notes that one obtains from others.
Note that creating one's own notes is an integral part of the learning
process and, as such, it is way more useful than just copying someone
else's notes or asking an LLM to prepare them.
For students enrolled in the old BSc in Computer Science and Engineering, who
still have to take the 8 CFU Exam for the Database Systems course, the
written exam will include also questions that cover the additional topics for 2
credit points of "Physical Data Storage" (covered in Chapter 6 of
Database System Concepts) and of "Transaction Management",
"Recovery", and "Multi-User Synchronization"
(covered in Chapters 8-10 of Database System Concepts).
The reference textbook for Chapters 6 and 8-10 is:
Database System Concepts (4th edition).
Silberschatz, Korth, Sudarshan. McGraw Hill, 2002.
Available at University Library Bozen: 13-General Collection (ST 271)
The material for Chapters 6 and 8-10 is covered at the proper level of detail
necessary for the preparation of the exam also in the slides
that Prof. Sven Helmer used when teaching the Database Systems
course until Academic Year 2017/2018. These slides are not available anymore
on the Web, but students who would like to receive an electronic copy can
contact me on Teams.
teaching page of Diego Calvanese
Last modified:
Tuesday, 29-Sep-2026 7:59:46 CEST