Computer science

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.^[1][2] 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 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, whilecomputer 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.^[3]

Computer science deals with the theoretical foundations of information, computation, and with practical techniques for their implementation and application.

Contents  [hide] 1 History 1.1 Major achievements 2 Philosophy 3 Areas of computer science 3.1 Theoretical computer science 3.1.1 Theory of computation 3.1.2 Information and coding theory 3.1.3 Algorithms and data structures 3.1.4 Programming language theory 3.1.5 Formal methods 3.1.6 Concurrent, parallel and distributed systems 3.1.7 Databases and information retrieval 3.2 Applied computer science 3.2.1 Artificial intelligence 3.2.2 Computer architecture and engineering 3.2.3 Computer graphics and visualization 3.2.4 Computer security and cryptography 3.2.5 Computational science 3.2.6 Information science 3.2.7 Software engineering 4 Academia 4.1 Conferences 4.2 Journals 5 Education 6 Industry 7 See also 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links

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