Finishing Maymester with a flourish!

          I am feeling so grateful to say that over this three-week course I have greatly developed my conception about Database Design and also I was able to apply it in a physical database for a sustainable purpose, which was our final project. In the end of this learning process, I definitely feel confident about my skills to build a Database and correctly identify  the tables, attributes, relationships and all the other tools that Microsoft Access provides to develop a database. 

            As I am an Architecture major student I plan to open my own business in a near future. For this reason, I believe that this class largely contributed to my professional career. With all the knowledge that I absorbed from this semester I will be able to design my own company's database. In addition, now I can and communicate with professionals from the IT (information technology) area and better understand their language whenever I need some assistance with database systems.   

            The learning materials for this class we are excellent sources for complement my learning. I wonder if there are more online courses available in others different areas offered by Stanford University, because the videos gave us clear explanations and examples which made me even more interested about learning more from them, so I thought maybe they have some video classes in the Architecture field. 

             

What did I absorb from this class up on now?

          

        Before I start studying Database Design I did not realize that actually I already had contact with database every day. In the first days of class, I was impressed with the importance that database has on our daily life, especially because it can help how to better organize data for a sustainable project for example. In the last 10 meetings I acquired a lot of knowledge, which makes me feel really good about our class. Even though sometimes I get confused with some exercises, I understand that this class is a differential for my professional career. The most important concepts that I learned was the difference between an actual database and a dataset. I could see the reason why Excel can not be so efficient as Access to manipulate data. In Excel there is no way to establish relationships between tables (entities), and because of this, it is necessary to repeat the data in many places. In addition, we spend much more time to update information and we are vulnerable to make mistakes. It leads to anomalies and a very inconsistent dataset.

           The second concept that I learned is that there is a Logical Design and a Physical Design. In the Logical Design we built a model, where it is possible to have many-to-many relationships. But, when we translate to the database (physical) there is no longer the possibility of a many-to-many relationship exist. So, we have to break in two one-to-many relationships. 

           Another perception that I had, is that there are different languages for modeling a database. The most populars are the ER Diagram and UML Diagram. During the classes we worked with both languages, so I could understand the vocabulary used in those models. This is a very good perspective that the students can have of models. 

       All these approaches have a very important meaning for me, because now I am able to understand how to develop a good database, eliminating anomalies. Even though I am not a Business major person, I plan to open my own business in the future, so this class provides me tools to better manage my future company's database.

UML Data Modeling

  Unified Modeling Language

 According to the video about UML Data modeling, it is possible to represent data for a application by (1) Relational Model; (2) XML; (3) Database Design Model;

Concepts

The UML Datamodeling has 5 concepts:
1. Class
2. Association
3. Association Class
4. Subclass
5. Composition & Aggregation

 1. Class

Consists of name, attributes (where we can add a Primary Key) and methods.

2. Association

The associations are relationships between objectives of two classes. There is also the Multiplicity of Associations, that talks how many objects of one class can be related to an object of another class.
There are four types of Relationships: 
A) one-to-one 
Each object on each entity is related to at most one on the other entity.
B) many-to-one
 Let's call one entity C1 and the other C2. 
In this relationship, C1 element can relate with zero or at most one element on C2.
But, C2 element can be related to zero or many elements on C1.
C) many-to-many
Each element from an entity can be related with zero, one or many elements on the other entity. 
There is no restrictions on the relationships. 
D) complete
Actually, this relationship complement the others. It indicates that every object must participate of a relationship. The minimum is at least one relationship on both sides.
 
3. Association Class
It refers to a relationship between objects of two classes, with attributes on relationships.
There is also the called Self-Association, that is an association between a class and itself.

4. Subclasses
There are Superclass (Generalization), and Subclass (Specialization).
They can be Incomplete (Partial) x Complete, or Disjoint (Exclusive) x Overlapping.

5. Composition & Aggregation
Composition: The objects of one class belong to objects of the other class.
Aggregation: The objects of one class can belong or NOT to the objects of the other class.

Efficient Green Purchase

Think "Green" before purchasing...

Have you ever gotten confused when you were purchasing a "green" product and did not know why it was considered green? Or even if you were informed the reason, were you able to see what was the advantage of purchasing a sustainable product instead a regular one? 

Customers are getting confused about the terminologies used in certain green products. It happens because some companies or organizations commit mistakes when displaying their products for the public. Green products are becoming popular in the market segments, such as organic foods, green building products and renewable energy.  

Besides the lack of information, some companies do the 'Greenwashing', that refers to when the company says that the product is green in determined aspect, but actually is not.

Let's reflect together

It is important to make the buyer aware of the consequences of acquiring a product. What information should the company provide to the customer? How the companies can classify the data of the products? Should they do a visual rating scale to illustrate better how green is the product? There are a variety of factors that can lead the consumer to a green purchase really effective. The way the products are displayed can strongly influence the consumer's decisions. For this reason, the companies should be accurate when exposing their products. Sometimes, the excess of images can cause distraction, and change the real focus of the purchase. Being conscious that buying eco friendly products is a valuable decision, but it is not enough. The client should be able to access the real sustainable facts about what is he/her buying.  There is an interesting resource called Green 101 Calculator,  which allows people calculate the cost and benefit of the green product. This can help customers to decide which is the best choice when purchasing.