Computer Information Science

Computer programs, software and networks are used daily to run business operations. We rely heavily on technology to help with everything from scheduling to problem solving to keeping us connected. Computer Information Systems are a necessary and vital component of our modern life. Computer science is a discipline that spans theory and practice. It requires thinking both in abstract terms and in concrete terms. The practical side of computing can be seen everywhere. Nowadays, practically everyone is a computer user, and many people are even computer programmers. Computer Science is not just about computers. Rather it is the study of computation and information, and is a subject which involves you in the very make-up of the world, and over the last 30 years it has transformed the way we run our everyday lives. The home computer revolution brought a PC into every home. Now, the internet and social media have transformed the way that we communicate and the spread of information around the world. Computer systems are all pervasive, ranging from the embedded system controlling a fridge to international banking systems handling billions of secure transactions every day. Many of these systems are very familiar, yet we take for granted the computational systems that make things like mobile phones, cars, aeroplanes and medical equipment possible. Beyond our everyday lives, Computer Science has had an equally large impact on other areas of science, most of which now require the processing and analysis of vast datasets. From capturing and interpreting data at the Large Hadron Collider to the Human Genome Project, these scientific endeavors simply would not be possible without computer science. Computer Science encompasses theoretical ideas about how information is stored and processed and how we can express the instructions necessary to perform a useful computation. It is also about practical techniques for the creation of new computer software and hardware. This differs radically from most physical sciences that separate the understanding and advancement of the science from the applications of the science in fields of engineering design and implementation. In computer science there is an inherent intermingling of the theoretical concepts of computability and algorithmic efficiency with the modern practical advancements in electronics that continue to stimulate advances in the discipline. It is this close interaction of the theoretical and design aspects of the field that binds them together into a single discipline.