CS304: Class Project

The objective of this project is to design and implement a database application. The
design phase consists of developing an Entity-Relationship Diagram (E-R Diagram) and
converting it into a relational schema. The implementation phase consists of
implementing this design in a relational database system and developing a web interface
to access this database.

The project is carried out as a group assignment. A group consists of 5 students and you
are expected to arrange groups among yourselves (this is accommodated as a choice in
Moodle. Please select your group from groups A-T). A group member evaluation form
(to be filled by every member of a group) will be used to verify that everyone has
participated in the project.

Every group should work on the same scenario described below. Communication and
collaboration between groups is allowed provided that such activities are well
documented and that large sections of code are not shared by several groups. It is
recommended that you use forums in Moodle for this purpose. Each group can start a
discussion forum for their project discussions.

Scenario:
Represent the information regarding the submission of feedback forms to lecturers and
instructors of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Feedback forms are
used to inform the opinions and concerns of students of a particular course module with
regards to academic matters, course logistics, etc. This can be done at the end of the
semester or several times per semester. A typical feedback form consists some questions
where students have to give a numerical “grade” (e.g.:- 0-10 to indicate how clear the
lectures are) and one or more comments fields. Typically, lecturers/instructors would like
to see a summary of the feedbacks in addition to going through them individually.
Recording the identity of the students with their feedback is not expected, but if the
student prefers to do so they should have this option. One student is allowed to give only
one feedback in one turn; however they are allowed to change it at any time later. All the
modifications to the feedback should be tracked. In addition, you will have to consider
factors such as courses conducted by more than one lecturer and students belonging to
different departments.

This description is kept vague to a certain extent so that you have the opportunity to come
up with the details. For instance, you can think about allowing lecturers/instructors to
respond to feedbacks.

The deliverables of the project are as follows.

Part I:
Develop an E-R diagram to represent the scenario of submission of feedback forms and
convert that into a relational schema (i.e. give table specifications for the design).
Use different features of E-R diagrams as much as possible in coming up with the design.
This would probably make your design complex, but you can leave out parts of the
design in the implementation phase.

State the assumptions that you make clearly and provide descriptions when you think that
the E-R diagram is not self-explanatory. A separate description of the scenario is not
needed.
This is due on July 29th.

Part II:
Implement the design you prepared in a relational database system and develop a web
interface to access and manipulate the database. This will be evaluated in a demonstration
held in the last week of the semester (week of August 27). In addition you have to submit
a report of around 10 pages on the project by 31st August.

Your report should include the following:

• An overview of your implementation
• Logical database design
• Physical database design
• Physical application design
• Observations
• Conclusion

You can select a relational database system of your choice such as SQL Server, MySQL
and Oracle. You can also select any web technology such as PHP, Java Servlets, JSP and
ASP. Please speak with us if you have problems regarding installation and use of these.

We are planning to select the best project and deploy it to be used by the department. We
will also give a “valuable” present(s) for the best group(s).