Course title: IS 698/800: Special topics in Information Systems: XML Data Management and Data Privacy

Description: This course covers two novel but important database topics: XML data management and data privacy. This course offers understanding of the latest technologies for XML data management and provides a hands-on experience on managing and querying XML data using Oracle DBMS. This course also introduces students to concepts and methods for protecting privacy sensitive information (e.g., medical records, photos) while allowing society to collect and share such information for worthy purposes. Topics include, but are not limited to basic concepts of XML, DTD, XML Schema (XSD), XPath, storing XML in databases, querying XML in databases, publishing XML from databases, basic concepts of data privacy, K-anonymity, L-diversity, face de-identification, and privacy preserving data mining. Students will keep abreast of the latest research innovations in the field of XML data management and data privacy. In addition, they will create a database application that manages XML data using Oracle DBMS.

Prerequisites: IS 620 or equivalent, or permission of instructor.  Knowledge of PL/SQL is highly recommended.

Please contact Dr. Chen at zhchen@umbc.edu if you have any questions.

FAQ:

·        What this course is about?

This course covers two novel but important database topics: XML data management and data privacy. XML has become the standard of data exchange over the internet and this course covers not only the basic knowledge of XML but also how to use XML in databases, which is extremely important if you are looking for a database job.

Privacy is a very hot research topic and the industry has started paying more attention to it. As data sharing becomes ubiquitous, there are great concerns of privacy leak (e.g., revealing the identity of a medical record). This course will cover existing methods to protect privacy while still allow use of the data for analysis. The database faculty (including the instructor, Dr. Gangopadhyay, and Dr. Karabatis) are actively engaged in research in this area so this course is a great starting point if you are interested in research in this area.  

·        Does this course cover new content?

This course has a small amount of overlap with IS 620 and IS 651 on the XML subject, but majority of the content is new (e.g., how to store, query, and publish XML data in databases). The content on privacy is not covered by any other IS courses.

• What are the relationships of these two topics?

These two topics are separate but are packed into the same course because neither of them is enough for a whole semester.

• What are the requirements for this course?

For the XML part, this course will include assignments and a small group project (much smaller than what you did in 620). For the privacy part, students will read some research papers and each student will be asked to present one of them in class. There will be also in class discussions. There will be NO exams.

• Do I have to take IS 620 before taking this course?

IS 620 is recommended. However, as long as you have some experiences with databases, you will be able to take this course. You need to use PL/SQL in some of the assignment and the project, but you can pick it up very quickly if you have previous experiences with databases.