Databases are magical and amazing pieces of software. If you don’t agree with me, please let these awesome resources change your mind. In addition to being magical and amazing, they’re also mysterious and complex, using advanced data structures and algorithms to store data efficiently and handle concurrent access. I use databases all the time but am pretty much oblivious to how they work under the hood. Let’s fix that knowledge deficiency by getting down and dirty with a foundational concept of modern databases: transactions.

I am a member of HackCville, a collective of UVA students and Charlottesville community members who are passionate about entrepreneurship, technology, and getting stuff done. This semester, I was a member of the Node, HC’s data science program (I’ll be a node TA next semester! HC is open to everyone, apply!). In order to become a fully fledged HackCville member, every program member must complete and present a final project using what they learned in their program. For my project, I chose to build a program that could track the number of people, via camera, at a place over time.