11340 - Applied Computer Science

Learning outcomes

"At the end of the course the student has a preparation that allows him to apply the techniques and methods typical of Information Science in the training context of Dentistry and Dental Prosthetics. In particular the student is able to: know the basic architecture of information systems and the main application aspects of Dental Informatics; identify the constituent elements of information systems and understand the advantages of integrated data management for management and organizational purposes define modeling techniques and the different methods of IT representation and structuring of data, create processing algorithms and related flow diagrams distinguish between procedural and generalized programming languages and their different typologies and identify the control structures used for the different categories of languages describe the organization of data in a database from fields to the record structure to the tabular organization; complete the requirements analysis phases, definition of the conceptual and logical project of a database up to complete implementation; use relational DBMS and the SQL language to manage archived information and create new databases; perform integrations of heterogeneous data in terms of quality and quantity and describe data mining procedures in the dental field"

Course contents

General information on architecture and constituent elements of information systems
Organizational Elements: document life cycle, structuring, procedures and computerized data management
Technological Elements: functional cataloging of workstations, servers and dedicated processing systems, network and processing architectures (client server and peer to pear). Line-switched networks or packet data transfer, interconnection software and data transfer methods. TCP/IP protocol. ISO/OSI STACK and data transfer from physical layer to application layer. Internet: history, architecture, control bodies, access methods, rules of use and interconnection devices (routers, bridges, switches).
Application Elements: general information, functional categories of data processing applications, flow diagram and block diagram of the data processing process (Input, Editing, Output). Network operating systems and architectures of single and multi user, single and multitasking operating systems. Proprietary and Open Source software. Data processing and support and service software applications and primary processing (text, numerical, graphics, etc.). Network protocols and client server processing architectures. (SMTP, POP, HTTP, SSH, HTTP, FTP, others)
Data representation models and algorithms:
General information, flowcharts, programming languages and serial processing sequences.
Databases:
General information and design methodology (Collection of requirements, conceptual design, logical design, physical design). Data representation models. Application examples and E-R scheme. Identification, characteristics and attributes of ENTITIES and Associations with application examples and derived graphic schemes. Dedicated processing systems and programs. Description and use of Access and MySQL and general information on DBMS and RDBMS. Languages for database management. SQL and single or multi user access and use methods. Languages for RDBMS management - Data Manipulation Language, Data definition Language, Data Control Language. Application examples with introduction to the concepts of selection, view, index, join. Command syntax and application examples with introduction to the concepts of conjunction and extraction of databases, conditional operators (<>= OR, AND, LIKE), aggregation (GROUP), reordering (ORDER BY)
Internet:
Methods of access to online biomedical databases. Systems for integrated access to information: PUBMED, TOXNET, ENTREZ, PBDB, Visible Human Project, Histological Atlas, etc. Operation of search engines, analysis of the architectures and functions of HTTP sites and methods of integrated use of databases and data access protocols via the network.

Readings/Bibliography

Power Point presentations.
e-Learning.
Fondamenti di Informatica Volume 1 and 2 Zanichelli

Office hours

See the website of Gabriele Amato