COMP1204: Data Management

What the module covered

This module introduced relational databases, including relational algebra, functional dependencies, keys, and normalisation. Practical work covered querying and modifying data with SQL, alongside data management in a Unix environment.

For the database coursework, I worked with a COVID-19 dataset in SQLite. I identified dependencies and candidate keys, decomposed the data into tables for reports, countries, and dates, and implemented the schema with foreign keys and indexes. This connected the theory of normalisation to the practical work of importing a CSV and organising its data.

What I took from it

I now frequently self-host game servers and other apps on my Debian home server using Docker containers. COMP1204 gave me the confidence to start doing this by making command-line tools and containers feel accessible for managing services.