This outline is also available in PDF.
Held: Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Summary:
Today we begin the conclusion of CS by looking beyond this course
to what kinds of topics computer scientists often study.
Related Pages:
Notes:
- An optional HW17 will be ready this afternoon.
- An optional replacement for the project will be ready this afternoon.
- Another homework replacement will be held in class today.
Overview:
- What is CS?
- Subfields of CS.
- Related Disciplines.
- We started the course with this question.
- We therefore start to end the class with a similar question.
- I've given you a simple definition:
Computer science is the study of algorithms and data.
- We've seen a bit what an algorithm is and what data are.
- But how do we study them?
- How have we studied them in this course?
- In part, the ways in which we study algorithms lead to different
subfields of computer science. The domains we study also lead
to different classes of algorithms.
- Computer scientists who emphasize
organization and architecture
study the ways in which algorithms and data may be implemented
in hardware and the implications of particular implementations.
- Example: Representing integers and adding integers.
- Grinnell's course: CSC211
- Computer scientists who emphasize operating systems study
algorithms and data representations that permit programs to use
the common resources (file system, processor, mouse, etc.)
- Example: Dining philosophers problem.
- Grinnell's course: CSC213
- Computer scientists who emphasize software engineering
look at the design of large computer applications. They may consider
process, program segmentation, team aspects, or even social
aspects.
- Example: Waterfall vs. Agile
- Grinnell's course: CSC223
- Computer scientists who emphasize artificial intelligence
look for ways to either model the way the brain works or to build
alternate simulations.
- Example: Genetic programming.
- Grinnell's course: CSC261
- Computer scientists who emphasize algorithms tend to
look for interesting problems for which to design algorithms. They
also investigate general algorithm design strategies and prove
things about the characteristics of problems and algorithms.
- Example: Lower-bound on the running time of a sorting algorithm.
- Example: The traveling salesman problem.
- Grinnell's' course: CSC301
- Computer scientists who emphasize programming languages look
at the design of the languages in which we express algorithms.
- Example: Paradigms
- Grinnell's course: CS302
- Computer scientists who emphasize theory consider
models of computation and the limits of these models.
- Example: The halting problem.
- Example: The Church-Turing thesis.
- Grinnell's course: CSC341
- Computer scientists who emphasize computer graphics write
algorithms related to that problem domain.
- Example: Ray tracing.
- Grinnell's course: Special Topics
- Computer scientists who emphasize human-computer interaction
consider the relationship of the programs we write to the people
who use them.
- Example: Menu ordering.
- Grinnell's course: Special Topics
- Computer scientists who emphasize databases look carefully
at the models for representing and accessing large amounts of data.
- Example: Relations
- Grinnell's course: Special Topics
- Computer scientists across the board consider social and
societal implications of computing, although some focus more on
this area than others. (And yes, some make it their specialization,
and we still consider them computer scientists.)
- There are many fields that are like computer science, but differ a bit.
- Here are some variants that you may hear.
- Computer Engineering emphasizes the construction of computational
devices.
- Software Engineering (mentioned above) emphasizes the
consruction of software, particularly processes, using some of the
approaches of the discipline of engineering.
- Informatics is either (a) a better, European, name for
CS or (b) the application of CS to a particular problem domain.
- Information Science is the study of information. It tends
to focus more on representation or the softer sides of CS.
- Computer Programming is a profession not always closely
related to CS.
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