Computer science or
computing science (abbreviated
CS) is the study of the theoretical foundations of
information and
computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in
computer systems. Computer scientists invent
algorithmic processes that create, describe, and transform information and formulate suitable
abstractions to model
complex systems.
Computer science has many sub-fields; some, such as computational complexity theory, study the fundamental properties of computational problems, while others, such as computer graphics, emphasize the computation of specific results. Still others focus on the challenges in implementing computations. For example, programming language theory studies approaches to describe computations, while computer programming applies specific programming languages to solve specific computational problems, and human-computer interaction focuses on the challenges in making computers and computations useful, usable, and universally accessible to humans.
The general public sometimes confuses computer science with careers that deal with computers (such as information technology), or think that it relates to their own experience of computers, which typically involves activities such as gaming, web-browsing, and word-processing. However, the focus of computer science is more on understanding the properties of the programs used to implement software such as games and web-browsers, and using that understanding to create new programs or improve existing ones.
History
The early foundations of what would become computer science predate the invention of the modern
digital computer. Machines for calculating fixed numerical tasks, such as the
abacus, have existed since antiquity.
Wilhelm Schickard designed the first mechanical calculator in 1623, but did not complete its construction.
Blaise Pascal designed and constructed the first working mechanical calculator, the
Pascaline, in 1642.
Charles Babbage designed a
difference engine and then a general-purpose
Analytical Engine in
Victorian times, for which
Ada Lovelace wrote a manual. Because of this work she is regarded today as the world's first
programmer. Around 1900,
punched card machines were introduced.
During the 1940s, as newer and more powerful computing machines were developed, the term ''computer'' came to refer to the machines rather than their human predecessors. As it became clear that computers could be used for more than just mathematical calculations, the field of computer science broadened to study computation in general. Computer science began to be established as a distinct academic discipline in the 1950s and early 1960s. The world's first computer science degree program, the Cambridge Diploma in Computer Science, began at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory in 1953. The first computer science degree program in the United States was formed at Purdue University in 1962. Since practical computers became available, many applications of computing have become distinct areas of study in their own right.
Although many initially believed it was impossible that computers themselves could actually be a scientific field of study, in the late fifties it gradually became accepted among the greater academic population. It is the now well-known IBM brand that formed part of the computer science revolution during this time. IBM (short for International Business Machines) released the IBM 704 and later the IBM 709 computers, which were widely used during the exploration period of such devices. "Still, working with the IBM [computer] was frustrating...if you had misplaced as much as one letter in one instruction, the program would crash, and you would have to start the whole process over again". During the late 1950s, the computer science discipline was very much in its developmental stages, and such issues were commonplace.
Time has seen significant improvements in the usability and effectiveness of computer science technology. Modern society has seen a significant shift from computers being used solely by experts or professionals to a more widespread user base. Initially, computers were quite costly, and for their most-effective use, some degree of human aid was needed, in part by professional computer operators. However, as computers became widespread and far more affordable, less human assistance was needed, although residues of the original assistance still remained.
Major achievements
Despite its short history as a formal academic discipline, computer science has made a number of fundamental contributions to science and society. These include:
The start of the "digital revolution," which includes the current Information Age and the Internet.
A formal definition of computation and computability, and proof that there are computationally unsolvable and intractable problems.
The concept of a programming language, a tool for the precise expression of methodological information at various levels of abstraction.
In cryptography, breaking the Enigma machine was an important factor contributing to the Allied victory in World War II.
Scientific computing enabled practical evaluation of processes and situations of great complexity, as well as experimentation entirely by software. It also enabled advanced study of the mind, and mapping of the human genome became possible with the Human Genome Project. Distributed computing projects such as Folding@home explore protein folding.
Algorithmic trading has increased the efficiency and liquidity of financial markets by using artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other statistical and numerical techniques on a large scale.
Image synthesis, including video by computing individual video frames.
Human language processing, including practical speech-to-text conversion and automated translation of languages
Simulation of various processes, including computational fluid dynamics, physical, electrical, and electronic systems and circuits, as well as societies and social situations (notably war games) along with their habitats, among many others. Modern computers enable optimization of such designs as complete aircraft. Notable in electrical and electronic circuit design are SPICE as well as software for physical realization of new (or modified) designs. The latter includes essential design software for integrated circuits.
Philosophy
Following
Peter Wegner, Amnon H. Eden proposes that there are three
paradigms at work in various areas of computer science:
a "rationalist paradigm", which treats computer science as branch of mathematics, which is prevalent in theoretical computer science, and mainly employs deductive reasoning,
a "technocratic paradigm", readily identifiable with engineering approaches, most prominent in software engineering, and
a "scientific paradigm", which approaches computer-related artifacts from the empirical perspective of natural sciences, and identifiable in some branches of artificial intelligence (the study of artificial life for instance).
Areas of computer science
As a discipline, computer science spans a range of topics from theoretical studies of algorithms and the limits of computation to the practical issues of implementing computing systems in hardware and software.
CSAB, formerly called ''Computing Sciences Accreditation Board'' – which is made up of representatives of the
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and the
IEEE Computer Society (IEEE-CS) – identifies four areas that it considers crucial to the discipline of computer science: ''theory of computation'', ''algorithms and data structures'', ''programming methodology and languages'', and ''computer elements and architecture''. In addition to these four areas, CSAB also identifies fields such as software engineering, artificial intelligence, computer networking and communication, database systems, parallel computation, distributed computation, computer-human interaction, computer graphics, operating systems, and numerical and symbolic computation as being important areas of computer science.
Theoretical computer science
The broader field of
theoretical computer science encompasses both the classical theory of computation and a wide range of other topics that focus on the more abstract, logical, and mathematical aspects of computing.
Theory of computation
According to
Peter J. Denning, the fundamental question underlying computer science is, ''"What can be (efficiently) automated?"'' The study of the
theory of computation is focused on answering fundamental questions about what can be computed and what amount of resources are required to perform those computations. In an effort to answer the first question,
computability theory examines which computational problems are solvable on various theoretical
models of computation. The second question is addressed by
computational complexity theory, which studies the time and space costs associated with different approaches to solving a multitude of computational problems.
The famous "P=NP?" problem, one of the Millennium Prize Problems, is an open problem in the theory of computation.
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Information and coding theory
Information theory is related to the quantification of information.This was developed by
Claude E. Shannon to find
fundamental limits on signal processing operations such as compressing data and on reliably storing and communicating data.
Coding theory is the study of the properties of codes and their fitness for a specific application. Codes are used for data compression, cryptography, error-correction and more recently also for network coding. Codes are studied for the purpose of designing efficient and reliable data transmission methods.
Algorithms and data structures
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Programming language theory
Programming language theory is a branch of computer science that deals with the design, implementation, analysis, characterization, and classification of
programming languages and their individual
features. It falls within the discipline of computer science, both depending on and affecting
mathematics,
software engineering and
linguistics. It is a well-recognized branch of computer science, and an active research area, with results published in numerous
journals dedicated to PLT, as well as in general computer science and engineering publications.
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Formal methods
Formal methods are a particular kind of
mathematically-based techniques for the
specification, development and
verification of
software and
hardware systems. The use of formal methods for software and hardware design is motivated by the expectation that, as in other engineering disciplines, performing appropriate mathematical analysis can contribute to the reliability and robustness of a design. However, the high cost of using formal methods means that they are usually only used in the development of high-integrity systems, where
safety or
security is of utmost importance. Formal methods are best described as the application of a fairly broad variety of
theoretical computer science fundamentals, in particular
logic calculi,
formal languages,
automata theory, and
program semantics, but also
type systems and
algebraic data types to problems in software and hardware specification and verification.
Concurrent, parallel and distributed systems
Concurrency is a property of systems in which several computations are executing simultaneously, and potentially interacting with each other. A number of mathematical models have been developed for general concurrent computation including
Petri nets,
process calculi and the
Parallel Random Access Machine model. A distributed system extends the idea of concurrency onto multiple computers connected through a network. Computers within the same distributed system have their own private memory, and information is often exchanged amongst themselves to achieve a common goal.
Databases and information retrieval
A database is intended to organize, store, and retrieve large amounts of data easily. Digital databases are managed using database management systems to store, create, maintain, and search data, through
database models and
query languages.
Applied computer science
Despite its name, a significant amount of computer science does not involve the study of computers themselves. Because of this, several alternative names have been proposed. Certain departments of major universities prefer the term ''computing science'', to emphasize precisely that difference. Danish scientist
Peter Naur suggested the term ''datalogy'', to reflect the fact that the scientific discipline revolves around data and data treatment, while not necessarily involving computers. The first scientific institution to use the term was the Department of Datalogy at the University of Copenhagen, founded in 1969, with Peter Naur being the first professor in datalogy. The term is used mainly in the Scandinavian countries. Also, in the early days of computing, a number of terms for the practitioners of the field of computing were suggested in the ''Communications of the ACM'' – ''turingineer'', ''turologist'', ''flow-charts-man'', ''applied meta-mathematician'', and ''applied
epistemologist''. Three months later in the same journal, ''comptologist'' was suggested, followed next year by ''hypologist''. The term ''computics'' has also been suggested. In continental Europe, terms cognate with "information" are often used, e.g. ''informatique'' (French), ''Informatik'' (German) or ''informatika'' (
Slavic languages) are also used.
Renowned computer scientist Edsger Dijkstra once stated: "Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes." The design and deployment of computers and computer systems is generally considered the province of disciplines other than computer science. For example, the study of computer hardware is usually considered part of computer engineering, while the study of commercial computer systems and their deployment is often called information technology or information systems. However, there has been much cross-fertilization of ideas between the various computer-related disciplines. Computer science research also often intersects other disciplines, such as philosophy, cognitive science, linguistics, mathematics, physics, statistics, and logic.
Computer science is considered by some to have a much closer relationship with mathematics than many scientific disciplines, with some observers saying that computing is a mathematical science. Early computer science was strongly influenced by the work of mathematicians such as Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing, and there continues to be a useful interchange of ideas between the two fields in areas such as mathematical logic, category theory, domain theory, and algebra.
The relationship between computer science and software engineering is a contentious issue, which is further muddied by disputes over what the term "software engineering" means, and how computer science is defined. David Parnas, taking a cue from the relationship between other engineering and science disciplines, has claimed that the principal focus of computer science is studying the properties of computation in general, while the principal focus of software engineering is the design of specific computations to achieve practical goals, making the two separate but complementary disciplines.
The academic, political, and funding aspects of computer science tend to depend on whether a department formed with a mathematical emphasis or with an engineering emphasis. Computer science departments with a mathematics emphasis and with a numerical orientation consider alignment with computational science. Both types of departments tend to make efforts to bridge the field educationally if not across all research.
Artificial intelligence
This branch of computer science aims to synthesise goal-orientated processes such as problem-solving, decision-making, environmental adaptation, learning and communication which are found in humans and animals. From its origins in
cybernetics and in the
Dartmouth Conference (1956), artificial intelligence (AI) research has been necessarily cross-disciplinary, drawing on areas of expertise such as
applied mathematics,
symbolic logic,
semiotics,
electrical engineering,
philosophy of mind,
neurophysiology, and
social intelligence. AI is associated in the popular mind with
robotic development, but the main field of practical application has been as an embedded component in areas of
software development which require computational understanding and modeling such as finance and economics, data mining and the physical sciences. The starting-point in the late 1940s was
Alan Turing's question "Can computers think?", and the question remains effectively unanswered although the "
Turing Test" is still used to assess computer output on the scale of human intelligence. But the automation of evaluative and predictive tasks has been increasingly successful as a substitute for human monitoring and intervention in domains of computer application involving complex real-world data.
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Computer architecture and engineering
Computer architecture, or digital computer organization, is the conceptual design and fundamental operational structure of a computer system. It focuses largely on the way by which the central processing unit performs internally and accesses addresses in memory. The field often involves disciplines of computer engineering and electrical engineering, selecting and interconnection hardware components to create computers that meet functional, performance, and cost goals.
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Computer graphics and visualization
Computer graphics is the study of digital visual contents, and involves syntheses and manipulations of image data. The study is connected to many other fields in computer science, including
computer vision,
image processing, and
computational geometry, and are heavily applied in the fields of
special effects and
video games.
Computer security and cryptography
Computer security is a branch of computer technology, whose objective includes protection of information from unauthorized access, disruption, or modification while maintaining the accessibility and usability of the system for its intended users. Cryptography is the practice and study of hiding (encryption) and therefore deciphering (decryption) information. Modern cryptography is largely related to computer science, for many encryption and decryption algorithms are based on their computational complexity.
Computational science
Computational science (or
scientific computing) is the field of study concerned with constructing
mathematical models and
quantitative analysis techniques and using computers to analyze and solve
scientific problems. In practical use, it is typically the application of
computer simulation and other forms of
computation to problems in various scientific disciplines.
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Information science
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Software engineering
Software engineering is the study of designing, implementing, and modifying software in order to ensure it is of high quality, affordable, maintainable, and fast to build. It is a systematic approach to software design, involving the application of engineering practices to software.
Academia
Conferences
Journals
Education
Some universities teach computer science as a theoretical study of computation and algorithmic reasoning. These programs often feature the
theory of computation,
analysis of algorithms,
formal methods,
concurrency theory,
databases,
computer graphics, and
systems analysis, among others. They typically also teach
computer programming, but treat it as a vessel for the support of other fields of computer science rather than a central focus of high-level study.
Other colleges and universities, as well as secondary schools and vocational programs that teach computer science, emphasize the practice of advanced programming rather than the theory of algorithms and computation in their computer science curricula. Such curricula tend to focus on those skills that are important to workers entering the software industry. The process aspects of computer programming are often referred to as software engineering.
Yet while computer science professions increasingly drive the U.S. economy, computer science education is absent in most American K-12 curricula. A report entitled "Running on Empty: The Failure to Teach K-12 Computer Science in the Digital Age" was released in October 2010 by Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA), and revealed that only 14 states have adopted significant education standards for high school computer science. The report also found that only nine states count high school computer science courses as a core academic subject in their graduation requirements. In tandem with "Running on Empty," a new, non-partisan advocacy coalition--Computing in the Core (CinC)--was founded to influence federal and state policy, such as the Computer Science Education Act, which calls for grants to states to develop plans for improving computer science education and supporting computer science teachers.
Industry
See also
Academic genealogy of computer scientists
Computer scientist
Computing
History of computer science
Informatics
List of academic computer science departments
List of computer science conferences
List of computer scientists
List of open problems in computer science
List of publications in computer science
List of pioneers in computer science
List of software engineering topics
Philosophy of computer science
Women in computing
References
Further reading
; Overview
* "Within more than 70 chapters, every one new or significantly revised, one can find any kind of information and references about computer science one can imagine. [...] all in all, there is absolute nothing about Computer Science that can not be found in the 2.5 kilogram-encyclopaedia with its 110 survey articles [...]." (Christoph Meinel, ''Zentralblatt MATH'')
* "[...] this set is the most unique and possibly the most useful to the [theoretical computer science] community, in support both of teaching and research [...]. The books can be used by anyone wanting simply to gain an understanding of one of these areas, or by someone desiring to be in research in a topic, or by instructors wishing to find timely information on a subject they are teaching outside their major areas of expertise." (Rocky Ross, ''SIGACT News'')
* "Since 1976, this has been the definitive reference work on computer, computing, and computer science. [...] Alphabetically arranged and classified into broad subject areas, the entries cover hardware, computer systems, information and data, software, the mathematics of computing, theory of computation, methodologies, applications, and computing milieu. The editors have done a commendable job of blending historical perspective and practical reference information. The encyclopedia remains essential for most public and academic library reference collections." (Joe Accardin, Northeastern Illinois Univ., Chicago)
;Selected papers
* "Covering a period from 1966 to 1993, its interest lies not only in the content of each of these papers — still timely today — but also in their being put together so that ideas expressed at different times complement each other nicely." (N. Bernard, ''Zentralblatt MATH'')
;Articles
Peter J. Denning. ''Is computer science science?'', Communications of the ACM, April 2005.
Peter J. Denning, ''Great principles in computing curricula'', Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, 2004.
Research evaluation for computer science, Informatics Europe report. Shorter journal version: Bertrand Meyer, Christine Choppy, Jan van Leeuwen and Jorgen Staunstrup, ''Research evaluation for computer science'', in Communications of the ACM, vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 31–34, April 2009.
; Curriculum and classification
Association for Computing Machinery. 1998 ACM Computing Classification System. 1998.
Joint Task Force of Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Association for Information Systems (AIS) and IEEE Computer Society (IEEE-CS). Computing Curricula 2005: The Overview Report. September 30, 2005.
Norman Gibbs, Allen Tucker. "A model curriculum for a liberal arts degree in computer science". ''Communications of the ACM'', Volume 29 Issue 3, March 1986.
External links
Scholarly Societies in Computer Science
Best Papers Awards in Computer Science since 1996
Photographs of computer scientists by Bertrand Meyer
EECS.berkeley.edu
; Bibliography and academic search engines
CiteSeer''x'': search engine, digital library and repository for scientific and academic papers with a focus on computer and information science.
DBLP Computer Science Bibliography: computer science bibliography website hosted at Universität Trier, in Germany.
The Collection of Computer Science Bibliographies
;Webcasts
Directory of free university lectures in Computer Science
Collection of computer science lectures
UCLA Computer Science 1 Freshman Computer Science Seminar Section 1
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