Computer science

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Computer science is the study of the design, use, and properties of computers. See also computing.

Computer science is a relatively new field with roots in electrical engineering, mathematics and linguistics. Only in the last third of the 20th century has it begun to be recognized as a separate discipline and developed its own methods and terminology.

See computer scientist for a list of famous computer scientists.

Major subfields include

• Mathematical foundations
  • Discrete mathematics
  • Symbolic logic

• Theoretical computer science
  • Algorithmic information theory
  • Complexity theory
  • Computability theory
  • Information theory
  • Theory of computation (or theoretical computer science)
  • Type theory

• Algorithms
  • Algorithms
  • Compilers
  • Lexical Analysis
  • Microprogramming
  • Operating systems

• Applied computer science
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Computer architecture
  • Computer graphics
  • Computer networks
  • Computer security
  • Databases
  • Distributed computing
  • Information retrieval
  • Programming languages
  • Program specification
  • Program verification
  • Software engineering

• Specific techniques
  • Benchmark
  • Computer vision
  • Data compression
  • Data structures
  • Design patterns
  • Digital signal processing
  • File formats
  • Human-computer interaction
  • Information security
  • Internet
  • Online computations and algorithms
  • Optimization
  • VLSI design

Related articles:

• Turing Award
• IEEE John von Neumann Medal
• Computer jargon
• Computer slang

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What are our priorities for writing in this area? To help develop a list of the most basic topics in computer science, please see Computer science basic topics.