Relational Database Design Fundamentals

Dr. C. Augusto Casas serves as a Senior Lecturer in the Online MS program at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), bringing over two decades of higher education teaching experience in information systems and computer science. His career uniquely combines academic excellence with extensive industry experience, having worked on Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems for major oil and power utility companies across the Americas, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. At UMBC, a designated Center for Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity, he specializes in cloud security and teaches courses focused on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and secure system deployment. His academic credentials include a PhD in Information Systems from Nova Southeastern University, with research focus in computational finance, and an MBA from the University of Connecticut. As a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®), he also brings expertise in financial technology (FinTech) to his teaching. His student-centered teaching philosophy emphasizes active learning techniques and effective online teaching methods, particularly in cybersecurity education where he helps prepare qualified professionals to address the increasing challenges of cyberattacks facing organizations globally.

Dr. Michael Brown serves as a Professor of Practice in the Department of Information Systems at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), bringing over two decades of industry experience to academia. His career began at Sun Microsystems as a Java Engineer before founding Valhalla Data Systems, which secured contracts with major government agencies. His professional journey includes significant work at the NASA/WVU Software Research Laboratory and technical management positions in business process automation at federal law enforcement agencies. As an educator, he has demonstrated exceptional teaching abilities across 14 universities over 20 years, earning the distinction of being the only person to receive two Effective Practice Awards from the Online Learning Consortium. His research focuses on artificial intelligence and software engineering, with over 30 published research papers. Dr. Brown's academic credentials include a PhD in Computer Science from Nova Southeastern University, along with both a Master's and Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from Shippensburg University. He is currently recognized as a Senior Member in both IEEE and ACM, and his contributions to academia were further acknowledged with a Fulbright grant in 2019, which led to research at General Tadeusz Kosciuszko Land Forces Military University in Wroclaw, Poland.