computer science summary

Learn about the study of computer science and its use in various fields

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Below is the article summary. For the full article, see computer science.

computer science, Study of computers, their design (see computer architecture), and their uses for computation, data processing, and systems control, including design and development of computer hardware and software and programming. The field encompasses theory, mathematical activities such as design and analysis of algorithms, performance studies of systems and their components, and estimation of reliability and availability of systems by probabilistic techniques. Because computer systems are often too large and complicated for failure or success of a design to be predicted without testing, experimentation is built into the development cycle.

Charles Babbage Summary

Charles Babbage was an English mathematician and inventor who is credited with having conceived the first automatic digital computer. In 1812 Babbage helped found the Analytical Society, whose object was to introduce developments from the European continent into English mathematics. In 1816 he was

Maurice Wilkes Summary

Maurice Wilkes British computer science pioneer who helped build the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC), the first full-size stored-program computer, and invented microprogramming. Wilkes became interested in electronics as a boy and studied that subject in his spare time while

Computer interface pioneer Douglas EngelbartEngelbart holding a video conference on the right side of the computer screen while working on a document with a remote collaborator during a 1968 computer conference in San Francisco, California.

Douglas Engelbart Summary

Douglas Engelbart American inventor whose work beginning in the 1950s led to his patent for the computer mouse, the development of the basic graphical user interface (GUI), and groupware. Engelbart won the 1997 A.M. Turing Award, the highest honour in computer science, for his “inspiring vision of

Bill Gates Summary

Bill Gates is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur who cofounded Microsoft Corporation, the world’s largest personal-computer software company. Gates wrote his first software program at the age of 13. In high school he helped form a group of programmers who computerized their school’s