Introduction

Computer science is the study of the use of computers to process information. The form of this information may vary widely, from the business person's records or the scientist's experimental results to the linguist's texts. One of the fundamental concepts in computer science is the algorithm - a list of instructions that specify the steps required to solve a problem. Computer science is concerned with producing correct, efficient, and maintainable algorithms for a wide variety of applications. Closely related is the development of tools to foster these goals: programming languages for expressing algorithms; operating systems to manage the resources of a computer; and various mathematical and statistical techniques to study the correctness and efficiency of algorithms.

Theoretical computer science is concerned with the inherent difficulty of problems that can make them intractable by computers. Numerical analysis, data management systems, computer graphics, and artificial intelligence are concerned with the applications of computers to specific problem areas.