This course surveys the fundamental concepts and theories used in organizing and structuring data that arise in a wide range of contexts (e.g. lab sciences, economic, social services, computing system performance, environmental sustainability). Course topics include data organization theory, basic relational model theory, normalization theory, relational algebra, data quality, data integrity and security, and mapping a data model into a database schema. Students will learn how to construct and use databases while maintaining the security and integrity of data as well as develop AI literacy in the context of data model design, learning how to apply and critique Artificial Intelligence responsibly and ethically. Hands-on assessments are included in this course.

The user experience is an important design consideration in the development of any product or system. In this course, the foundations of user-centered design and human / computer interaction (HCI) are introduced through team-based projects, in-class activities, and individual work. Students will be introduced to a development lifecycle, from idea generation, requirements gathering, research and benchmarking, project planning and team roles, design development through storyboards and prototyping, usability evaluation through iterative testing.

Students will survey and apply contemporary techniques used in analyzing and modeling information requirements. Requirements will be elicited in a variety of domains and abstracted at conceptual, logical, and physical levels of detail. Process, data, and state modeling will be applied in projects that follow a systems development lifecycle. Object-oriented modeling will be explored and contrasted with data and process oriented modeling. Individual and team modeling assignments will be required.

Students will be introduced to issues in client/server database implementation and administration. Students will configure, test, and establish client-server communication and server-server communication with single and multiple database servers. Topics such as schema implementation, storage allocation and management, user creation and access security, backup and recovery, and performance measurement and enhancement will be presented in lecture and experienced in a laboratory environment. Students will configure and demonstrate successful communication between a database file server and multiple clients.