The theory side of this is a good grounding in the theory behind relational databases, although not that practical. The project OTOH - fat Java client backed on to MySQL - boy does it suck. Why couldn't they make us hammer nails into out eyes? It'd be less painful that making a Java GUI. And teaching all this theory about how relational databases are supposed to work and then using MySQL, which will happily and silently mutilate your data and violate referential integrity. Gah.
Taken by ChiPingTsang in the past.
[http://units.uwa.edu.au/CITS3240 Handbook link]
