Go to the ACM website and using the digital library portal (http://portal.acm.org/dl.cfm), find a paper on a new database system (may use any paper published 2008 and after) from a conference supported by a special interest gorup. Good keywords to use for this is “database case study” or if you are interested in say, environmental databases, “environmental databases”. The paper must describe a completed database system. Access to ACM is free on campus. Please go to the library website to understand how to access this resource from off-campus. Read about this system.
Identify:
1. What is the source of the data?
2. Is there any interesting problem with the data that makes a traditional relational database system ineffective for storing the data?
3. What motivated the researchers to look at this specific problem?
4. How did the team interact with domain experts?
5. What is the systems architecture for the system?
6. How did they test the system?
7. What are their future plans for the system?
8. Was the development of the system funded by external organizations (NSF, NIH, EPA, industry)?
9. What are your thoughts and opinions on the system
a. Was their practice state of the art?
b. Is there something they could have done better with the system?
c. Is there anything you learned from the paper that you think would be interesting to employ in a system you have developed?
d. Is there any activity that they performed that you question the ethics of the researchers (cite ethics resources here)?
e. Do you have any other opinions that you want to express. Ground your opinions with citations of what you have learned.
Write a paper that addresses these issues. This paper should probably be about 5 pages long, double spaced, 12 pt font, 1 inch margins using times new roman or arial font (Calibri is fine too). When you express an opinion, you should cite a database source on which you are basing your opinion. I expect to see citations in all papers (citations would comprise a 6th page). If you do not have any citations, you will have points deducted. Citations should use the form of direct citations after a concept with either a number reference to the citation list or the author name and year, and then a works cited list at the end of the paper. If you have challenges writing papers, please see the writing center on campus. All papers will be checked for plagiarism. You may use direct quotes from papers but it must be cited directly after the quotes terminate. Only 10% or half a p age of text may be used like this. Any unquoted text taken directly from a source will be treated like plagiarism. Plagiarized text will be given a zero “0” grade for the assignment. I will be using SafeAssign to check for plagiarism.