CDS 302 -- Scientific Data and Databases ASTR 401 -- Astroinformatics Spring Semester 2011
IMPORTANT NOTE (for Spring 2011):
The CDS 302 and ASTR 401 courses will be taught at the
same time (3:00-4:15pm) in the same room
(Research I, room 301). These two courses are now
the same course --- students registered in one course
or the other will receive slightly different class assignments.
All class activities (including online activities)
must be in compliance with the
GMU Honor Code.
Disability Services:
Students with disabilities and in need of accommodations
must register with the
Mason Office
of Disability Services (ODS).
You will receive a "Faculty Contact Sheet" letter
documenting your need.
Students are responsible for providing this letter
to the faculty member in the course.
Accommodations can only be provided to students
who register with the
ODS.
Data and databases used by scientists. Includes basics about
database organization, queries, and distributed data systems.
Student exercises will include queries of existing systems,
along with basic design of simple database systems.
Stat 354
(Probability and Statistics for Engineers and Scientists II).
Detailed Course Overview:
CDS 302 and ASTR 401 students:
this course will review data and databases used by scientists.
Modern scientific research projects are often characterized by
the collection, organization, and analysis of databases.
Topics to be covered will include basic concepts about user
requirements analysis, data modeling, database organization,
metadata, query languages, markup languages, data registries,
web services, and distributed data systems. Application-related
concepts will be presented, including data discovery,
data fusion, data integration, data mining, data grids,
user query interfaces, decision support, knowledge representation,
ontologies, the semantic web, inference from databases,
and machine intelligence. Science-related concepts will be
presented, including science data formats, data dictionaries,
informatics, noise and error-handling, multi-level data products,
science use cases, data-driven discovery, data-centric science,
spatio-temporal databases, e-Science, virtual observatories,
annotation systems, and grid computing. Case studies will be
presented from various science disciplines, including
space science, bioinformatics, earth science, geographic
information systems, and numerical simulation research.
Student exercises will include queries of existing systems,
along with basic design of simple database systems.
ASTR 401 students: A few assignments will be
different for you, with more focus on large astronomy sky survey databases.
CDS 302 students: A few assignments will be
different for you, compared to those assigned to the Astronomy students.
Grading:
20% = Homework and Lab Exercises
40% = Writing Assignments
20% = Midterm Exam
20% = Final Exam
Course Objectives:
to become familiar with a variety of large scientific database projects,
their goals and implementation;
to become capable in using database and data management techniques
to solve scientific problems; and
to acquire knowledge in database and data management techniques that
will enable the student to progress to more advanced courses,
research projects, and employment opportunities that require database
skills and science data understanding.
