Outline of computer science

Computer science (also called computing science) is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their implementation and application in computer systems. One well known subject classification system for computer science is the ACM Computing Classification System devised by the Association for Computing Machinery.

Computer science can be described as all of the following:

Subfields

Mathematical foundations

Coding theory – Useful in networking, programming, system development, and other areas where computers communicate with each other.
Game theory – Useful in artificial intelligence and cybernetics.
Discrete Mathematics
Graph theory – Foundations for data structures and searching algorithms.
Mathematical logic – Boolean logic and other ways of modeling logical queries; the uses and limitations of formal proof methods
Number theory – Theory of the integers. Used in cryptography as well as a test domain in artificial intelligence.

Algorithms and data structures

Algorithms – Sequential and parallel computational procedures for solving a wide range of problems.
Data structures – The organization and manipulation of data.

Artificial intelligence

Outline of artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence – The implementation and study of systems that exhibit an autonomous intelligence or behavior of their own.
Automated reasoning – Solving engines, such as used in Prolog, which produce steps to a result given a query on a fact and rule database, and automated theorem provers that aim to prove mathematical theorems with some assistance from a programmer.
Computer vision – Algorithms for identifying three-dimensional objects from a two-dimensional picture.
Soft computing, the use of inexact solutions for otherwise extremely difficult problems:
- Machine learning - Development of models that are able to learn and adapt without following explicit instructions, by using algorithms and statistical models to analyse and draw inferences from patterns in data.
- Evolutionary computing - Biologically inspired algorithms.
Natural language processing - Building systems and algorithms that analyze, understand, and generate natural (human) languages.
Robotics – Algorithms for controlling the behaviour of robots.

Communication and security

Networking – Algorithms and protocols for reliably communicating data across different shared or dedicated media, often including error correction.
Computer security – Practical aspects of securing computer systems and computer networks.
Cryptography – Applies results from complexity, probability, algebra and number theory to invent and break codes, and analyze the security of cryptographic protocols.

Computer architecture

Computer architecture – The design, organization, optimization and verification of a computer system, mostly about CPUs and Memory subsystem (and the bus connecting them).
Operating systems – Systems for managing computer programs and providing the basis of a usable system.

Computer graphics

Computer graphics – Algorithms both for generating visual images synthetically, and for integrating or altering visual and spatial information sampled from the real world.
Image processing – Determining information from an image through computation.
Information visualization – Methods for representing and displaying abstract data to facilitate human interaction for exploration and understanding.

Concurrent, parallel, and distributed systems

Parallel computing - The theory and practice of simultaneous computation; data safety in any multitasking or multithreaded environment.
Concurrency (computer science) – Computing using multiple concurrent threads of execution, devising algorithms for solving problems on multiple processors to achieve maximal speed-up compared to sequential execution.
Distributed computing – Computing using multiple computing devices over a network to accomplish a common objective or task and thereby reducing the latency involved in single processor contributions for any task.

Databases

Outline of databases

Relational databases – the set theoretic and algorithmic foundation of databases.
Structured Storage - non-relational databases such as NoSQL databases.
Data mining – Study of algorithms for searching and processing information in documents and databases; closely related to information retrieval.

Programming languages and compilers

Compiler theory – Theory of compiler design, based on Automata theory.
Programming language pragmatics – Taxonomy of programming languages, their strength and weaknesses. Various programming paradigms, such as object-oriented programming.
Programming language theory
Formal semantics – rigorous mathematical study of the meaning of programs.
Type theory – Formal analysis of the types of data, and the use of these types to understand properties of programs — especially program safety.

Scientific computing

Computational science – constructing mathematical models and quantitative analysis techniques and using computers to analyze and solve scientific problems.
Numerical analysis – Approximate numerical solution of mathematical problems such as root-finding, integration, the solution of ordinary differential equations; the approximation of special functions.
Symbolic computation – Manipulation and solution of expressions in symbolic form, also known as Computer algebra.
Computational physics – Numerical simulations of large non-analytic systems
Computational chemistry – Computational modelling of theoretical chemistry in order to determine chemical structures and properties
Bioinformatics and Computational biology – The use of computer science to maintain, analyse, store biological data and to assist in solving biological problems such as Protein folding, function prediction and Phylogeny.
Computational neuroscience – Computational modelling of neurophysiology.
Computational Linguistics
Computational logic
Computational engineering

Software engineering

Outline of software engineering

Formal methods – Mathematical approaches for describing and reasoning about software design.
Software engineering – The principles and practice of designing, developing, and testing programs, as well as proper engineering practices.
Algorithm design – Using ideas from algorithm theory to creatively design solutions to real tasks.
Computer programming – The practice of using a programming language to implement algorithms.
Human–computer interaction – The study and design of computer interfaces that people use.
Reverse engineering – The application of the scientific method to the understanding of arbitrary existing software.

Theory of computation

Automata theory – Different logical structures for solving problems.
Computability theory – What is calculable with the current models of computers. Proofs developed by Alan Turing and others provide insight into the possibilities of what may be computed and what may not.
- List of unsolved problems in computer science
Computational complexity theory – Fundamental bounds (especially time and storage space) on classes of computations.
Quantum computing theory – Explores computational models involving quantum superposition of bits.

History

Professions

Data and data structures

Programming paradigms

External links

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ACM report on a recommended computer science curriculum (2008) (PDF)
Directory of free university lectures in Computer Science (archived 12 May 2008)
Collection of Computer Science Bibliographies
Photographs of computer scientists (Bertrand Meyer's gallery)

v t e Computer science
Note: This template roughly follows the 2012 ACM Computing Classification System.
Hardware	Printed circuit board Peripheral Integrated circuit Very Large Scale Integration Systems on Chip (SoCs) Energy consumption (Green computing) Electronic design automation Hardware acceleration Processor Size / Form
Computer systems organization	Computer architecture Computational complexity Dependability Embedded system Real-time computing
Networks	Network architecture Network protocol Network components Network scheduler Network performance evaluation Network service
Software organization	Interpreter Middleware Virtual machine Operating system Software quality
Software notations and tools	Programming paradigm Programming language Compiler Domain-specific language Modeling language Software framework Integrated development environment Software configuration management Software library Software repository
Software development	Control variable Software development process Requirements analysis Software design Software construction Software deployment Software engineering Software maintenance Programming team Open-source model
Theory of computation	Model of computation Stochastic Formal language Automata theory Computability theory Computational complexity theory Logic Semantics
Algorithms	Algorithm design Analysis of algorithms Algorithmic efficiency Randomized algorithm Computational geometry
Mathematics of computing	Discrete mathematics Probability Statistics Mathematical software Information theory Mathematical analysis Numerical analysis Theoretical computer science
Information systems	Database management system Information storage systems Enterprise information system Social information systems Geographic information system Decision support system Process control system Multimedia information system Data mining Digital library Computing platform Digital marketing World Wide Web Information retrieval
Security	Cryptography Formal methods Security hacker Security services Intrusion detection system Hardware security Network security Information security Application security
Human–computer interaction	Interaction design Social computing Ubiquitous computing Visualization Accessibility
Concurrency	Concurrent computing Parallel computing Distributed computing Multithreading Multiprocessing
Artificial intelligence	Natural language processing Knowledge representation and reasoning Computer vision Automated planning and scheduling Search methodology Control method Philosophy of artificial intelligence Distributed artificial intelligence
Machine learning	Supervised learning Unsupervised learning Reinforcement learning Multi-task learning Cross-validation
Graphics	Animation Rendering Photograph manipulation Graphics processing unit Mixed reality Virtual reality Image compression Solid modeling
Applied computing	Quantum Computing E-commerce Enterprise software Computational mathematics Computational physics Computational chemistry Computational biology Computational social science Computational engineering Differentiable computing Computational healthcare Digital art Electronic publishing Cyberwarfare Electronic voting Video games Word processing Operations research Educational technology Document management
Category Outline Glossaries