Unit 1: Introduction to Data models
Amisi Jospin Hassan
CS 3306-01 Databases 2
University of the People
Instructor Aaron Nichie
5th February 2025
Assignment Paper Unit 1
It is important to know that an Entity-Relationship (ER) model is a conceptual framework
used in database design to represent and analyze the data requirements of a system. It provides a
visual way to describe the data entities within a system, their attributes, and the relationships
between them. This assignment papers aim to provide the outline of the Entity-Relationship (E-
R) diagram for the car-insurance company based on the given requirements.
In the first place, we need to identify the key entities and their relationships for the car
insurance company where customers can own multiple cars, and each car can have zero or more
recorded accidents. Below are the entities and attributes for each table.
As Entities, we have:
• Customer: the customers of the car-insurance company.
• Car: the cars owned by the customers.
• Accident: the recorded accidents associated with each car.
As Relationships, we have:
• A relationship between Customer and Car, indicating that a customer owns one or more
cars.
• A relationship between Car and Accident, indicating that a car can have zero or more
recorded accidents.
For the Attributes, we have:
• Customer: CustomerID (Primary Key), Name, Address, PhoneNumber
• Car: CarID (Primary Key), LicensePlate, Make, Model, Year
• Accident: AccidentID (Primary Key), Date, Description, Severity
In addition to the above, the representation of the E-R diagram can be displayed in this way:
(Name, Address, PhoneNumber) (LicensePlate, Make, Model, Year)
Customer Car
Owns
has
Accident
(Date, Description, Severity)
In conclusion, the Entity-Relationship model is a crucial tool in database design that aids
in conceptualizing and organizing data structure. A customer can own multiple cars, and each car
can have multiple recorded accidents. Each entity has its own primary key for unique
identification, and the relationships capture the connections between these entities.
References:
Database System Concepts, Volume 1, Fourth Edition by Silberschatz−Korth−Sudarshan. The
book is available from: Database System Concepts 4th Edition By Silberschatz-Korth-
[Link]
Chen, P. P. (1976). The Entity-Relationship Model - toward a unified view of data. ACM
Transactions on Database Systems, 1(1), 9-36. doi:10.1145/320434.320440 s
Elmasri, R., & Navathe, S. B. (2015). Fundamentals of Database Systems (7th ed.). Pearson.