Teaching Database Systems as CrossDisciplinary Informatics in French Engineering Schools

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Teaching Database Systemsas Cross-Disciplinary
Informaticsin French Engineering Schools

• Jean-Luc Koning
• Grenoble Institute of TechnologyGrenoble, France
• Jean-Luc.Koning_at_inpg.fr http//www.inpg.fr

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French Accreditation Commissionand Engineering
Schools

• Commission des Titres d'Ingénieur (French ABET)
• 6-year accreditation audit and review
• Task forces changes in technology
• curricula, recruiting students in engineering,
  job
• experience validation procedure, continuing
• education, international relations, vocational
  training

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French Accreditation Commissionand Engineering
Schools

• Informatics skills of an engineer
• (not necessarily a computer engineer)
• Know how to do things (no software developper)
• vs.
• Know how to get things done (how to make choices
  of how to make someone develop a piece of
  software).
• Have enough knowledge to be capable to integrate
  informatics components in a professional setting

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Cross-Disciplinary Informatics

• Have a clear vision of the main types of
  software tools available.
• Be able to act as project manager for the
  development of a software tool when not
  available.
• Concepts and management of databases.
• Algorithms and programming.

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Cross-Disciplinary Informatics

• Side note
• Basic knowledge on computer hardware, operating
  systems and networks considered to be part of any
  engineer's computer science background
• Expertise in Word processing, spreadsheets, etc.
  not considered informatics per se

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Concepts and Managementof Databases

• All engineers (will) have to handle databases
  during their career.
• Concepts on databases, i.e., data modeling,
  entity-relationship diagram, information system
  modeling.
• Database design approach. It is not intended
  for an engineer to be able to develop a database
  nor even program it using a specific tool but
  rather to know the design stages of a database.
• Concepts and handling of a query language (e.g.,
  SQL)

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Course Dependencies

• Cf. B. Cassel's talk Understanding the Entirety
  of Modern Informatics
• Heikki Topi's diagram
• Web programming, system administration, OO
  design, spreadsheet, etc.

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Course Contents

• Understand tables of a relational database as
  well as the SQL language that enables to extract
  pieces of information.
• Know how to design a database and how to model
  it using entity-relationship diagrams and UML
  class diagrams.
• Know the meaning of a normalized database design
  and know how to analyze dependancies between
  relational tables in order to build a normalized
  database.

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Course Contents

• Understand the underlying basic theory and logic
  of SQL, i.e., relational algebra.
• Acquiring ease of use with some database editors
  and design tools.
• Possibly understand some advanced concepts such
  as database theory and concurrency,
  implementation issues, performance and request
  optimisation, distributed systems, object
  databases, XML databases, etc.

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Role of Engineering Tools

• The use of tools is fundamental to engineering to
  effectively organize information and manage
  design complexity.
• Familiarity with commonly used tools, the ability
  to deploy them in appropriate situations, and the
  ability to use them effectively are important
  skills.
• Touch on different tools Web approach,
  programming approach, etc.

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Computer Engineering 2004 CurriculumGuidelines
for Undergraduate DegreePrograms in Computer
Engineering

• CE-DBS Database Systems 5 core hours
• CE-DBS0 History and overview 1
• CE-DBS1 Database systems 2
• CE-DBS2 Data modeling 2
• CE-DBS3 Relational databases
• CE-DBS4 Database query languages
• CE-DBS5 Relational database design
• CE-DBS6 Transaction processing
• CE-DBS7 Distributed databases
• CE-DBS8 Physical database design