CS227 - Topics in Object-Oriented Databases:

Final Project Page


Overview

The final project for this course is intended to have you focus on one aspect of query optimization. We are open as to the form your final project takes (research paper, literature review, implementation etc.) and the nature of the effort (individual, group). Naturally, we expect the project scope to reflect the number of people who are contributing to it.

By Wednesday Mar. 20, you should submit a project proposal which describes your intentions for the final project. (These are not carved in stone). Below we propose some ideas for a final project, as well as what we'd expect both by way of the project and the project proposal.


Research Paper

If you believe that you could contribute something original to the field of query optimization, we encourage you to write up your ideas in a research paper. Of course, new ideas are not enough. You need to stress why your approach is better and different than those out there, either through convincing argument, analysis or empirical study. Any aspect of query optimization is a valid topic for a research paper.

For the project proposal submission, you should indicate the area in which you have a research idea that you'd like to flesh out, and sketch the idea.


Literature Review

There are a number of topics related to query optimization that we haven't had the time to discuss in this course. For any of these, you could choose to write a "literature review" that presents a survey of the important work that has been done in the area. We would expect a "Literature Review" to be roughly 25 pages, and to present no fewer than 8 papers not part of the reading list. More than summarizing the papers, your review should summarize the area - categorizing the various issues and approaches relevant to the subfield. Among the topics that could be considered for "Literature Reviews" are: been You could also choose to "zero in" on a topic that was covered in a cursory fashion in the course. For example, a review could provide a more thorough analysis of the various approaches to processing joins or of the various structures available that could be used as indices.

For the project proposal submission, you should choose one of the above topics (or another), as well as a list of readings (at least 8) that you'd like to draw from in preparing the review. Note that these papers should not be taken from the reading list for the course.


Implementation

If you decide that you'd like to work on a KOLA or COKO-related implementation, we've a number of project ideas. Feel free to stop by to discuss them. Of course, other implementations are possible - for example, implementations (for the purpose of empirical testing) of any of the ideas presented in a paper discussed in the course could make for an interesting project.

Naturally, for the project proposal submission, you should describe the implementation that you intend to build.


Mitch Cherniack