Data Integration and Exchange (Level 10) (VS1) (U03990)

? Credit Points : 10 ? SCQF Level : 10 ? Acronym : INF-4-DIE-4-V

With the proliferation of data on the web, data in different formats is scattered across many sources. Data sources may only provide partial access to data and the structure of the data may differ drastically from the assumptions used in conventional queries.

Querying such data requires data integration and exchange between different sources. The notion of querying and the meaning of an answer to a query are different from their classical counterparts: since only a partial view of the data is available, answers to queries are at best approximate. Furthermore, integrated data may not be consistent with its specification, and hence techniques for querying inconsistent data become more important.

This course presents the basics of data integration and exchange, explains techniques for querying incomplete and inconsistent information, for specifying correspondences between database schemas and schema mappings, and for querying databases using views. Both relational and XML data formats are considered.

Entry Requirements

? This course is only available to part year visiting students.

? This course is a variant of the following course : U03989

? Pre-requisites : Successful completion of Year 3 of an Informatics Single or Combined Honours Degree, or equivalent by permission of the School. This course is only available to part-year visiting students who are only in Edinburgh for Semester 1.

? Prohibited combinations : Data Integration and Exchange (Level 11)

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Database Systems, (School of Informatics, Schedule O)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : 4th year

? Delivery Period : Semester 1 (Blocks 1-2)

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Lecture	Monday	12:10	13:00	Central
Lecture	Thursday	12:10	13:00	Central

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

This course introduces students to new techniques for analysing, integrating and querying data that may come from a variety of sources, some of which may not be fully accessible and may contain inconsistent data. The learning objectives are:

* Given a description of a situation requiring data integration students will be able to classify it as belonging to one of a number of standard scenarios.
* Given a description of data integration and exchange scenario and a commercial database management solution to the problem students will be able to predict erroneous or counterintuitive answers that will arise from the solution.
* Given a description of a data integration and exchange scenario where access to data is restricted, students will be able to design a scheme to provide approximate results to queries taking account of restricted access.
* Given a database query and a data integration and exchange scenario, students will know how to rewrite the query to take account of the scenario, providing approximate solutions where these are necessary.
* Given two database schemas students will be able to specify mappings between schemas and how to compose such mappings.
* Given a collection of databases, their schemas and mappings between schemas students will be able to describe how data is exchanged based on the schema mappings.
* Given a collection of databases, their schemas and schema mappings, students will be able to identify instances of inconsistent data.
* Given a collection of databases with inconsistent data, their schemas and schema mappings, students will be able to describe the results of queries on inconsistent databases.