Computer science
(CS) is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation
and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computersystems.
It is frequently described as the systematic study of algorithmic processes that
create, describe, and transform information. Computer science has many sub-fields;
some, such as computer graphics, emphasize the computation of specific results,
while others, such as computational complexity theory, study the properties of
computational problems. Still others focus on the challenges in implementing computations.
For example, programming language theorystudies approaches to describe computations,
while computer programming applies specific programming languages to solve specific
computational problems, and human-computer interaction focuses on the challenges
in making computers and computations useful, usable, and universally accessible
to people. The general public sometimes confuses computer science with careers
that deal with computers (such as information technology), or think that it relates
to their own experience of computers, which typically involves activities such
as gaming, web-browsing, and word-processing. However, the focus of computer science
is more on understanding the properties of the programs used to implement software
such as games and web-browsers, and using that understanding to create new programs
or improve existing ones.