Department of Computer Engineering

Bilkent University

CS353 DATABASE SYSTEMS

Fall 2025-2026

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Instructor: Prof. Dr. Özgur Ulusoy

TA:

bullet Tuna Saygın
bullet Office Hour: by appointment
bullet Office: EA-407
bullet E-mail: tuna.saygin@bilkent.edu.tr
bullet Kerim Eren
bullet Office Hour: by appointment
bullet Office: ~
bullet E-mail: kerim.eren@bilkent.edu.tr
bullet Mahmut Mert Gençtürk
bullet Office Hour: by appointment
bullet Office: ~
bullet E-mail: mert.gencturk@bilkent.edu.tr

ANNOUNCEMENTS
bullet Ann #25: 20/11/2025 Homework 5 is now available on Moodle. The due date for the homework is November 27 , Thursday at 23:59. You must submit your homework via the "HW5 Submission" activity on Moodle.
bullet Ann #24: 15/11/2025 Insert entries for Homework 4 have been updated. Because MySQL’s default charset does not accept Turkish characters, all Turkish letters have been converted to their English equivalents. I have uploaded the revised document with the corrected entries to the Moodle inside Homework 4 Documents.
bullet Ann #23: 15/11/2025 The midterm paper review will take place in room EA 502 between 10:30–14:30.
bullet Ann #22: 13/11/2025 If you want to see your midterm paper, you need to book a time slot through the Google sheet. Please note that only 5 students can sign up for each time slot. The review session will take place on Monday, November 17, between 10:30 and 14:30.
bullet Ann #21: 13/11/2025 Midterm grades are now available on STARS. Grade Avg = 62.13
bullet Ann #20: 08/11/2025 This is a reminder for the project design report. The due date for the design report is November 12 Wednesday, at 23:59.
bullet Ann #19: 04/11/2025 MIDTERM EXAM CLASSROOM LIST is as follows according to student surnames:
bulletB-Z01: Akar - Ermiş
bulletB-Z02: Fatima - Mohamad Suwandi
bulletB-Z04: Muluk - Zor
You can/may check your assigned classroom on the Google Sheet as well.
bullet Ann #18: 03/11/2025 The Midterm Exam will be on 5th of November starting at 17:40 in classrooms BZ01, BZ02, BZ04. The exam will be CLOSED BOOK/NOTES and cover the following subjects: Relational Model & Relational Algebra, Entity/Relationship Model, and SQL. Please ensure that your answers in the exam use only the notations and operators taught in class. Any other notations or operators will not be accepted.
bullet Ann #17: 03/11/2025 Solutions for homework 1, 2 and 3 are now available on Moodle under Homework Solutions folder.
bullet Ann #16: 03/11/2025 Homework 4 is now available on Moodle. The due date for the homework is November 19 , Wednesday at 23:59. You must submit your homework via the "Homework 4" activity on Moodle.
bullet Ann #15: 24/10/2025 Project Design Report: Due Date: November 12 Thursday, at 23:59. Please pay attention while doing this report since its grade will correspond to %30-%40 (tentatively) of your overall project grade. Please read the Project Functionalities document and the corresponding part in Project Specifications document in Moodle under Project Documents folder for the details of the design report. Notice that you may need to alter your E/R diagram to capture all the given functionalities. Do not forget to introduce your additional functionality. You need to include the following information:
bullet Revised E/R
bullet Table schemas
 bullet User interface design and corresponding SQL statements
bullet Ann #14: 19/10/2025 The Feedback sessions for Project proposals will be held on 20th and 21st October 2025 Monday and Tuesday. You can (and are encouraged to) get feedback by reserving an appropriate time slot in the Google Sheet for an appointment.
bullet Ann #13: 16/10/2025 There will be an online tutorial on web-based database applications on 30 October, Thursday at 17:30 via Zoom. You will have a programming assignment (HW-4) related to this tutorial. Zoom link will be announced later.
bullet Ann #12: 16/10/2025 Homework 3 is now available on Moodle. The due date for the homework is October 23, Thursday at 23:59. You must submit your homework via the "Homework 3" activity on Moodle. Your submission file must be named as "surname_name_hw3.pdf"
bullet Ann #11: 15/10/2025 Homework 1 grades are now available on STARS. Grade Avg = 84.6
bullet Ann #10: 1/10/2025 The due date for the project proposal is October 13, Monday at 23:59. Your project proposal should include description of your application, its requirements (functional and non-functional) and limitations in detail. Most importantly, it should include the conceptual design of your database using the E/R model. Note that, you MUST draw your ER diagram with the notation you learned in the class. Please read the corresponding part in Project Specifications Document for the details of the project proposal. You should upload your proposal to Moodle. One of the group member's submission is enough.
bullet Ann #9: 1/10/2025 Project groups are listed. You can find Project Groups and Project Topics documents in Moodle under Project Documents folder. Please check the lists carefully and email to Tuna Saygın immediately if there is a mistake in your project group.
bullet Ann #8: 1/10/2025 Homework 2 is now available on Moodle. The due date for the homework is October 8, Wednesday at 23:59. You must submit your homework via the "HW2 Submission" activity on Moodle. Your submission file must be named as "surname_name.pdf".
bullet Ann #7: 24/09/2025 Homework 1 is now available on Moodle. The due date for the homework is October 1, Wednesday at 23:59. You must submit your homework via the "HW1 Submission" activity on Moodle. Your submission file must be named as "surname_name_hw1.pdf".
bullet Ann #6: 19/09/2025 The students, who are retaking CS-353 to improve their grade or due to failure, and who previously completed the term project successfully, can be exempted from the project of the course. If you are repeating the course and want to be exempted from the project, please send an e-mail with the subject line CS-353: Project Exemption to Tuna Saygın by September 26, Friday midnight, clearly indicating the year and the semester when you took the course. For students requesting exemption from the project, your previous project grade will be mapped to this semester's project grade based on the average grade of this semester’s projects.
bullet Ann #5: 19/09/2025 Please start forming project groups of 5 students. You can use the forum in Moodle if you are looking for a group or a team member. Please read Project Specification Document in Moodle for further details.
bullet Students that do not belong to any group will be assigned randomly.
bullet Project groups may include students from different sections.
bullet You must form your group and send an e-mail with the subject line CS-353: Group Members to Tuna Saygın until September 26, Friday midnight. One group member's e-mail is enough.
bullet The email should include a list of group members with full name, sections and IDs.
bullet Ann #4: 19/09/2025 Course syllabus, Project Document and Course slides are uploaded on Moodle.
bullet Ann #3: 19/09/2025 Minimum Requirements to Qualify for the Final Exam:
In order to qualify for the final exam, the Midterm Exam grade must be at least 30 out of 100.
bullet Ann #2: 19/09/2025 CS353 MOODLE PAGE: We will use Moodle service in our course in this semester. You must log into the moodle through STARS system first. You can use forums in this page to communicate with other students in this course.
bullet Ann #1: 19/09/2025 Welcome to CS-353! Please visit this page very frequently to learn about latest announcements, regular assignments, office hour changes, exam information and other relevant stuff.

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