Due: See Class Webpage

1. The Emory College University Database

1. The Emory College consists of a number of Departments (MathCS, Physics, etc)
2. A department has a unique name, address, phone number and can have a number of faculty members.
3. A faculty member has SSN, name, office, phone number and salary
4. A department has one department chair with a starting date
5. A department can teach a number of courses
6. A course has a unique ID, a course name and a description
7. A semester has a unique ID, a start date and an end date.
8. A number of sections of a course is offered in a semester and a section will be taught by one faculty member.
9. Each section is uniquely identified by a section number.
10. Not every course will be offered in a semester and some courses may have multiple offerings (= multiple sections of the course offered in a semester).
11. A student has an ID, name and address
12. A student can enrolled in one section of some course.
13. A student can enrolled in multiple sections in one semester.
    (Clarification: multiple sections of different courses - but you don't have to represent this fact in the ER diagram because it is not easy to do)

    Send me (cheung@mathcs.emory.edu) email if you need to clarify some details...

• Design an ER-diagram for the Emory College Database without using any quaternary relationships (relationship involving 4 (or more) entity types)

  Important comments:

  • Make sure your design represent all the information above correctly

  • Make sure your design does not store an information item multiple times

  • Make sure your design does not ADD bogus facts - e.g.: make sure that in your design, multiple sections of a course can be offered in some semester (it would be wrong if your design "forces" one offering of a course).

  • You must specify the cardinality constraints on binary relationships and participation constraints on all relationships.

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  Some Frequently Answered Questions on Question 1:

  1. Can I assume the chairman is a faculty in the same department ? Yes. But without this assumption is easier.
  2. Can a course be offered by more than 1 department ? No.
  3. Is a course name unique ? No: the naming of courses can be so brief and non-descriptive that different departments may use the same name for their courses. E.g.: Analysis.
  4. Does a department have to teach at least one course? No.
  5. Does every student have to take at least one section? No.
  6. Does every section have to have students enrolled? No.
  7. Is at least one section taught in each semester? Yes (each semester offers at least one section of some course).
  8. Does the entity Section have any attributes not mentioned in the problem? No, but you can add some, like Max Number Enrolled...
  9. Does a faculty member have to teach at least 1 section ? No.
  10. Does each faculty have to be in a department? Yes.
  11. Does a department always have a chair ? Yes.
  12. Does a course have to be offered in at least one section ? No.
  13. Can a faculty teach more than one sections each semster? Yes.
  14. Can a faculty chair more than one department ? No
  15. Different sections in same semester can be taught by different faculties and a section of the same course in different semesters can also be taught by different faculty members.
  16. Is phone number of a faculty unique ? No.
  17. Is office of a faculty unique ? No. (2 faculties can share an office)
  18. Is phone number of a department unique ? No.
  19. Is the address of a department unique ? No.
  20. Is the course name unique ? No.
  21. Is the course description unique ? No.
  22. Can an entity exist without any specified attribute? Yes and no - depends what you mean by "attribute"; if you count a "key attribute" as an attribute, then the answer is "no". A weak entity must have at least one attribute. A non-weak entity can consist of only its key attribute.
  23. Is a student required to be enrolled in a semester? No.
  24. Does a student required take a section ? No (otherwise, we can't admit a new student to the university !!!)
  25. Do I need to show in the ER diagram the fact that "every student can be enrolled in only one section of every course offered" ?
      • No ! In fact, it is not possible to do this in the ER-model !!!

2. Question 2

Do the question 3.16 given in this PDF file: click here

You must produce an ER diagram as answer.

The same important comments in Question 1 applies to this question.

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Some Frequently Answered Questions from students on Question 2:

1. Do the "Frequently Asked Questions" for Question 1 applies to Question 2: NO !!
2. Number of majors of a student ? At least one and at most 2.
3. Number of minors of a student ? At least zero and at most 1.
4. What is the difference between a number grade and a letter grade ?
   A number grade ranges from 0 to 4 and a letter grade is the traditional A, A-, B, etc. For example, in Emory, the letter grade 'A' is equal to the number grade 4, 'A-' is 3.7, and so on. There is a one to one correspondence between a letter grade and a number grade.
5. Are numerical and letter grades duplication of information? Since they are essential equivalent.
   No !! One occurrence of the fact that an grade A is valued 4 is not duplication (otherwise, how do you know that A is valued as 4 ? Some countries use "A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F" and values the letter grade A as 5 !). But: multiple occurrences of the fact that an grade A is valued 4 is duplication.
6. Is the telephone number of a department unique ?
   No: two very small departments can share the same office; then these two departments can have the same phone number.
7. Comment: a grade report is not the same as a "report card". A report card that students get in high school contains many grades. A grade report reports only one grade

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• Extension request
  • To request an extension for hw2, you must execute the following command before the class start time of the homework due date:

    /home/cs377001/req-ext hw2

    You request will be successful if you have not exceeded the maximum number of "free" (no-questions-asked) requests allowed

Students will be graded partially on the basis of their homework assignments. These homework assignments are to be treated as examinations, and are expected to be your individual work. While discussions with other students in the course may be permitted or encouraged by your instructor, you should write your program yourself. Your instructor (and any teaching assistants assigned to the course) will be glad to help you to the extent that he or she feels reasonable.

Submissions based on other students solutions in prior offerings of the course specifically violate these guidelines, as do submissions prepared with the help of an outside "tutor".

You should take precautions to protect the confidentiality of your work, do not collaborate on questions that you turn in for a grade, do not show your solution to a fellow student, not even after the due date for some students may have receive extension.

All submissions should include a comment statement near the top of the program of the form:

THIS CODE IS MY OWN WORK, IT WAS WRITTEN WITHOUT CONSULTING A TUTOR OR CODE WRITTEN BY OTHER STUDENTS - your name

Cases of apparent plagiarism or collusion will be referred to the Honor Council.