1. Topics Covered in COSC 6340 Data models (ER, Relational, XML)
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, PL/SQL, using Oracle 9i, …
Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery
XML, Semantic Web, Data-centric Web Applications
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
Spacial Data Management
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)
Object-relational databases (in response to object-oriented databases; e.g. Oracle 9)
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