1. Topics Covered in COSC 6340 Data models (ER, Relational, XML (short))
Using data models; learning how to store real world information in a database
Algorithms that access disks (and not the main memory)
Database design (logical, physical)
Index Structures and Storage Structures
Application development using a DBMS; SQL, using Oracle 9i, …
Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery
Implementation of DBMS

2. Important Topics Not or Little Covered in COSC 6340
Implementation of DBMS
Transaction Management, Concurrency Control
Crash Recovery
More on Query Optimization
Object-relational and Object-Oriented Databases
Active Databases
Security and Authorization
Parallel and Distributed Databases
Spatial Data Management
XML, Semantic Web, Data-centric Web Applications
Special Purpose Database (temporal, genome, multi-media, mobile,…)

3. Recent Trends in the Area of Databases
Databases and the Web
Support for semi-structured data and XML
Support for decision support (data warehouses, OLAP, data mining)
Support for unusual data types (images, long strings, gene sequences, spatial databases)
Hiding SQL from the user though high level interfaces
Making SQL to be a real programming language (SQL3)
Data Grids
Querying and Mining Data Steams
JAVA interfaces for Databases