Visual Calendar — Fall 2026

Month view of every class day, exam, quiz, project release, due date, and presentation. For full topic details, readings, and rubrics see the Schedule and Assignments pages.

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§1 Foundations
§2 SQL Mastery
§3 Programming & Tools
§4 Storage & Indexing
§5 Query Processing
§6 Transactions
§7 Distributed & Modern
Exam
Section Quiz
Project Released
Project Due
Presentations
Paper Discussion
No Class
August 2026
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
26
27
28
29
30
31
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21 Course Introduction Syllabus, repo tour Project 0 released
22
23
24 History of Databases Codd 1970, GMW Ch. 1
25
26 Relational Model & Data Types GMW 2.1-2.3
27
28 Relational Algebra I Select, Project, Sets
29
30
31 Relational Algebra II Joins, Division
1
2
3
4
5
September 2026
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
30
31
1
2 ER Modeling GMW 4.1-4.5 Project 1 released
3
4 ER-to-Relations GMW 4.5-4.6 Project 0 due 11:59 PM
5
6
7 Labor Day — no class
8
9 Functional Dependencies Closure, Keys
10
11 Normalization 1NF–BCNF §1 Quiz (Foundations)
12
13
14 SQL DDL & SELECT Basics GMW 6.1-6.2
15
16 SQL Joins Inner, Outer, Semi, Anti
17
18 Aggregation, GROUP BY, HAVING GMW 6.4
19
20
21 Subqueries Correlated, EXISTS, IN Project 2 released
22
23 CTEs (WITH) PostgreSQL 7.8
24
25 Window Functions I OVER, PARTITION BY Project 1 due 11:59 PM
26
27
28 Window Functions II Frames, LAG/LEAD Project 1 breakouts
29
30 Recursive Queries WITH RECURSIVE Paper: Hirn & Grust 2023 Project 1 winners present
1
2
3
October 2026
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
27
28
29
30
1
2 Views, Constraints, Triggers GMW 7-8 §2 Quiz (SQL Mastery)
3
4
5 Python + psycopg + pandas
6
7 DuckDB + Notebooks + Viz
8
9 Homecoming — no class
10
11
12 Storage Hierarchy Disks, SSDs, Pages
13
14 Exam 1 Weeks 1-8
15
16 Buffer Management GMW 13.5-13.6
17
18
19 Row vs Column Stores Paper: C-Store (VLDB 2005) Project 3 released
20
21 B+ Trees I Search, Bulk Loading
22
23 B+ Trees II Insert, Delete, Cost Project 2 due 11:59 PM
24
25
26 Hash Indexes Extendible, Linear Project 2 breakouts
27
28 PostgreSQL Index Types GiST, GIN, BRIN Project 2 winners present
29
30 External Sorting GMW 15.4 §4 Quiz (Storage)
31
November 2026
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
1
2 Joins I Nested Loop, Block NL
3
4 Joins II Sort-Merge, Hash, Grace
5
6 Iterator (Volcano) Model
7
8
9 Vectorized Execution; Opt. I Boncz MonetDB/X100
10
11 Veterans Day — no class
12
13 Optimization II Cost Est., System R Paper: Leis 2015 §5 Quiz (Optimization) Project 3 due 11:59 PM
14
15
16 Transactions & ACID Serializability Final Project released Project 3 breakouts
17
18 Exam 2 Weeks 9-13
19
20 Two-Phase Locking Deadlocks Project 3 winners present
21
22
23 Thanksgiving break
24 Thanksgiving break
25 Thanksgiving break
26 Thanksgiving break
27 Thanksgiving break
28 Thanksgiving break
29
30 MVCC & Snapshot Isolation Timestamps
1
2
3
4
5
December 2026
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
29
30
1
2 Recovery (WAL, ARIES) + Distributed & Modern Papers: ARIES, DuckDB §6 Quiz (Transactions)
3 Reading day
4 Reading day
5 Finals week begins
6 Finals week
7 Finals week
8 Finals week
9 Final Project due 11:59 PM
10 Finals week
11 Final Exam (Exam 3) 10:00 AM-12:00 PM, MALA 1000 Final Project presentations
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19

Final Exam (Exam 3): Friday, Dec 11, 10:00 AM–12:00 PM in MALA 1000.

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