Postgraduate Course: Data Integration and Exchange (Level 11) (INFR11058)
Course Outline
| School | School of Informatics |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Credits | 10 |
| Home subject area | Informatics |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/teaching/courses/die |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | 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 (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | Students MUST NOT also be taking
Data Integration and Exchange (Level 10) (INFR10032)
|
Other requirements | Database Systems (3rd year) - or equivalent experience.
For Informatics PG and final year MInf students only, or by special permission of the School. |
| Additional Costs | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
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. The learning objectives are:
1 - 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.
2 - 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. Students will be able to compare & evaluate different solutions & justify the choice of one solution over another.
3 - Given a description of a data integration & 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. Students will be able to generate a range of design options & will know techniques and their limitations for comparison between options.
4 - Given a database query & a data integration & exchange scenario, students will know how to rewrite the query to take account of the scenario, providing approximate solutions where these are necessary. Students will be able to develop rewritings of the query & will be able to reason about basic properties of such rewritings.
5 - Given two database schemas students will be able to specify mappings between schemas & how to compose such mappings.
6 - Given a collection of databases, their schemas & mappings between schemas students will be able to describe how data is exchanged based on the schema mappings.
7 - Given a collection of databases, their schemas & schema mappings, students will be able to identify instances of inconsistent data.
8 - Given a collection of databases with inconsistent data, their schemas and schema mappings, students will be able describe the results of queries on inconsistent databases. |
Assessment Information
Written Examination 70
Assessed Assignments 30
Oral Presentations 0
Assessment
Three assignments, worth 10% each. |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
Topics include:
* review of relational and XML data models
* examples of data integration and exchange scenarios
* dealing with incomplete information in databases
* local- and global-as-view scenarios of data integration
* query rewriting
* answering queries using views
* relational data exchange
* XML data exchange
* schema mappings; composing and inverting schema mappings
* querying inconsistent databases
* aggregation over multiple sources
Relevant QAA Computing Curriculum Sections: Not yet available
Reading List |
| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Not available yet. |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Lectures 20
Tutorials 0
Timetabled Laboratories 0
Non-timetabled assessed assignments 40
Private Study/Other 40
Total 100 |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Iain Murray
Tel: (0131 6)51 9078
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Kate Weston
Tel: (0131 6)50 2701
Email: |
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