✅ Note: Submission on E3 is open. Team submission is available now ✅

Overview

For the second milestone of your final project, your team will finalize your database application concept and design its foundational data model. You will describe your application domain in detail, construct an Entity-Relationship (ER) diagram, and map it to a relational schema using the ER-to-relational mapping algorithm covered in class.

Key Information & Requirements

• Released: October 16, 2025
• Due: Thursday, November 6, 2025 at 11:59 PM
• Submission: E3 (one submission per team)
• Deliverable: Single PDF document
• Weight: 4% of overall course grade (20% of final project grade)
• Language: English or Mandarin (based on your team's preference)

Assignment Requirements

Section 1: Project Description (50%)

Finalize your project idea and describe your proposed database application. You may select one idea from Milestone 1 or propose a new concept.

• Application Description (25%)
  1. Domain (3%): Identify the general domain area of your application.
     • Examples: Healthcare, E-commerce, Education, Transportation, Social Media, Finance, Food Services, Entertainment
  2. Problem Statement (10%): Describe the specific problem your application solves in one clear paragraph.
     • What pain point or need does it address?
     • Who are the intended users?
     • Why is a database necessary for this application?
  3. Database-Relevant Functions (9%)
     • List 3-5 core functions that require database operations.
       • Examples: "Search courses by department and semester," "Track student enrollment history," "Generate grade reports"
       • Be specific about what data is queried, inserted, updated, or deleted
  4. Motivation (3%)
     • Explain why your team is interested in building this application (2-3 sentences).
• Data Specifications (25%)
  1. Data Description (8%)
     • Describe the types of data your database will store (2-3 sentences).
     • Example: "Our database will store student personal information (name, ID, email), course details (code, title, credits), and enrollment records (semester, grade, status)."
  2. Estimated Database Size (8%)
     • Provide realistic estimates for each major entity type.
     • Example: "We expect approximately 5,000 student records, 500 courses, 20,000 enrollment records, and 200 faculty members."
  3. Data Acquisition Strategy (9%)
     • Explain how you will obtain or generate this data (2-3 sentences).
     • Acceptable sources: Public datasets (Kaggle, government open data), APIs, synthetic data generation, crowdsourcing from classmates, web scraping (with proper attribution)
     • Include specific source names if available

Section 2: ER Diagram (50%)

Design the conceptual and logical data models for your application.

• Entity-Relationship Diagram (50%)
  • Create an ER diagram using the notation taught in class.
  • Required ER Diagram Components:
    • Complexity Requirements:
      • 5-10 entity sets (rectangles)
      • 5-10 relationship sets (diamonds or lines)
      • Aim for balance—not too simple (< 5 entities) or too complex (> 12 entities)
  • Must Include:
    • Attributes for each entity (underline primary keys)
    • Attribute types: Include variety (strings, integers, dates, booleans, decimals)
    • Attribute categories: In addition to Simple attributes, show at least one example each of a Complex attributes, either:
      • Composite attributes (e.g., Address = Street + City + Zip), or
      • Multi-valued attributes (e.g., phone numbers)
    • Constraints:
      • Cardinality ratios for all relationships (1:1, 1:N, M:N)
      • Participation constraints (total/mandatory vs. partial/optional) - use appropriate notation
      • Key constraints (primary keys clearly marked)