Courses

Undergraduate Courses

Modern society produces and stores vast amounts of data. In order to manage and understand these data, databases must be developed, maintained and mined for new information and knowledge. Students in the database specialization will study these skills, which enable them contribute to the influx of information from areas as diverse as climate science, commerce, medicine, and social computing.

To qualify for the area of specialization in Databases, students must obtain a grade of C or better in (1) COMP 3380, (2) COMP 4380, and (3) one of COMP 4710 or 4740.

COMP 3380 - Database Concepts and Usage

• • An introduction to database systems including the relational, hierarchical, network and entity-relationship models with emphasis on the relational model and SQL.

  • Credits: 3

  • Old Prerequisite: COMP 2140 (or the former 074.214 or 074.206) or COMP 2061 (or the former 074.206F)

  • New Prerequisite: one of COMP 2150 or ECE 3740

• • Official course outline

  • COMP 3380 is a required course for specialization in (1) Databases, (2) Software engineering, and (3) Web-based systems.

  • COMP 3380 is a required course for the COMP-STAT Joint B.Sc.(Hons.) program and its Co-op option.

  • COMP 3380 can be chosen as one of the seven required 3rd-year COMP courses for the COMP-MATH Joint B.Sc.(Hons.) program and its Co-op option.

  • COMP 3380 can be chosen as one of the three required 3rd-year COMP courses for the Software pattern of the B.Sc.(Maj.) program in Applied Math with CS option.

  • COMP 3380 can be selected as one of the five required technical electives for the B.Sc.(Comp.Eng.) program.

  • COMP 3380 can be chosen as one of the three software engineering (SE) electives for the Software Engineering Focus Area in the B.Sc.(Comp.Eng.) program.

COMP 4380 - Database Implementation

• • Implementation of modern database systems including query modification/optimization, recovery, concurrency, integrity, and distribution.

  • Credits: 3

  • Old Prerequisite: COMP 3380 (or the former 074.338)

  • New Prerequisites: COMP 3010 and COMP 3380 and COMP 3430

• • Official course outline

  • COMP 4380 is a required course for specialization in Databases.

  • COMP 4380 is a suggested 4th-year COMP elective for the COMP-STAT Joint B.Sc.(Hons.) program and its Co-op option.

  • COMP 4380 can be chosen as one of the three required 4th-year COMP courses for the COMP-MATH Joint B.Sc.(Hons.) program and its Co-op option.

  • COMP 4380 can be selected as one of the five required technical electives for the B.Sc.(Comp.Eng.) program.

COMP 4710 - Introduction to Data Mining

• • Introduction to data mining concepts and their applications.

  • Credits: 3

  • Old Prerequisite: COMP 3380 (or the former 074.338) or consent of department

  • New Prerequisites: COMP 3380 and [one of STAT 1150, STAT 2000 (B), STAT 2001 (B), STAT 2220, or PHYS 2496] or consent of department

• • Official course outline

  • COMP 4710 can be chosen as one of the three required courses for specialization in Databases.

  • COMP 4710 is a suggested 4th-year COMP elective for the COMP-STAT Joint B.Sc.(Hons.) program and its Co-op option.

  • COMP 4710 can be chosen as one of the three required 4th-year COMP courses for the COMP-MATH Joint B.Sc.(Hons.) program and its Co-op option.

  • COMP 4710 can be selected as one of the five required technical electives for the B.Sc.(Comp.Eng.) program.

  • COMP 4710 can be chosen as one of the three software engineering (SE) electives for the Software Engineering Focus Area in the B.Sc.(Comp.Eng.) program.

COMP 4740 - Advanced Databases

• • Parallel, distributed, object-oriented, object-relational, and XML databases; other emerging database technologies.

  • Credits: 3

  • Prerequisite: COMP 3380 (or the former 074.338)

• • Official course outline

  • COMP 4740 can be chosen as one of the three required courses for specialization in Databases.

COMP 4520 - Undergraduate Honours Project

• • A research based project on a specific area of computer science (e.g., databases, data mining, data science). Students must find a faculty supervisor (e.g., Dr. Leung) and write a proposal in their penultimate term.

  • Permission to take the course is given on an individual basis.

  • Prerequisite: departmental permission.

COMP 4522 - Honours Project  

• • A supervised research-based project on a specific area of computer science (e.g., databases, data mining, data science). 

  • Permission to take the course is given on an individual basis. Available to fourth-year Honours or Joint Honours Computer Science students only. May not be held with COMP 4560 or the former COMP 4520. 

  • Prerequisite: Written permission of the department.

COMP 4560 - Industrial Project

• • Students will work in teams (which can be a team of one person) on an industrial project. Projects are supplied by the Department.

  • Prerequisites: COMP 3350 (C) and departmental permission.

Graduate Courses

COMP 7830 - Distributed Database Systems

• • Architecture and management of distributed database systems; distributed design, query processing, transaction management; traditional and object-oriented database systems; overview of existing systems.

  • Credits: 3

  • Prerequisites: COMP 4380 (or the former 074.438) or equivalent or written consent of instructor

COMP 7860 - Advanced Topics in Computer Systems: Advanced Data Mining (and Data Warehousing)

• • Topics of current research interest in databases, with focus on advanced data mining (and data warehousing) concepts and their applications. Topics include: association rule mining, sequential mining, clustering, classification, and outlier detection. Topics may also include: on-line analytical processing (OLAP) and data warehousing.

  • Credits: 3

  • Prerequisite: Written consent of course instructor

  • Area: Applications

  • Category: "Check-off" course (i.e., fulfill the breadth requirement for PhD students)

COMP 7944 - Advanced Data Mining

• • Topics of interest in data mining, include advanced data mining concepts and their applications.

  • Credits: 3

  • Prerequisite: Written consent of instructor

  • Area: Applications