Info introduction

Lecture



Information (from information and automation) is the science of the methods and processes of collecting, storing, processing, transmitting, analyzing and evaluating information, providing the possibility of its use for decision-making [1] . It includes disciplines related to the processing of information in computers and computing networks: both abstract, such as algorithm analysis, and specific, such as the development of programming languages ​​and data transfer protocols.

The topics of research in computer science are the questions: what is possible and what cannot be realized in programs and databases (computational theory and artificial intelligence), how can one solve specific computational and informational problems with maximum efficiency (computational complexity theory), in what form one should store and restore information of a specific kind (structures and databases), how programs and people should interact with each other (user interface and programming languages ​​and presentation knowledge), etc.

Etymology

The word "computer science" is formed from "Inform" from "information" and "atika" from "automation". In the 1960s, Russian, English, French and German tended to replace the term “documentation” with terms based on the word “information” [2] . The term is mute. Informatik was introduced by the German specialist Karl Steinbuch in the article Informatik: Automatische Informationsverarbeitung (Computer Science: Automatic Information Processing) of 1957 [3] . The French term “informatique” was introduced in 1962 by Philip Dreyfus, who also offered translation to a number of other European languages.

In Russian, documentary has become a derivative of the term “documentation” and the terms scientific and scientific-technical information have evolved. The terms "informatology" and "informatics" were proposed in 1962 by the corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences Alexander Kharkevich. The fundamentals of computer science as a science were outlined in the book "Fundamentals of Scientific Information" of 1965, which was republished in 1968 under the title Basics of Informatics [4] .

In France, the term officially came into use in 1966:

The term “Informatique”, created in France and gradually adopted internationally, was recognized by the French Academy as a new word of our language in April 1966. [5]

In German, the term is mute. Informatik had a dual meaning at the beginning. For example, in Germany [2] and Great Britain [1], it was in the sense of “computer science”, that is, no more than the use of computers, and in the GDR, as in Europe, it meant science in French and Russian models.

Equivalents in English

It is believed that the terms “informatics” in European countries and “computer science” in Russian mean the direction referred to in English as “computer science”. Another term devoted to the study of the structure and general properties of objective (scientific) information, sometimes called documentary (documentary informatics) or automatic analysis of documents [1] , is similar to the term “information science”.

It is generally accepted that the term “informatics” was introduced independently into the English language by Walter F. Bauer, the founder of Informatics Inc.. In the United States, the term “informatics” is currently associated with applied computing or data processing in the context of another field [6] , for example, in bioinformatics (“bioinformatics”) and geoinformatics (“geoinformatics”).

In many dictionaries informatics and computer science are equated with computer science. In the UNESCO thesaurus "Computer Science - Informatics" is given as a synonym for "Computer science - Computer Science" [7] .

Introduction

Computer science is a young scientific discipline that studies issues related to the search, collection, storage, transformation and use of information in various fields of human activity. Genetically informatics is connected with computer technology, computer systems and networks, as computers allow you to create, store and automatically process information in such quantities that a scientific approach to information processes becomes both necessary and possible.

To date, the interpretation of the term "computer science" (in the sense of how it is used in modern scientific and methodical literature) is not yet established and generally accepted. Let us turn to the history of the issue, going back to the time of the appearance of electronic computers.

The concept of computer science is as difficult for any general definition, as, for example, the concept of mathematics . This is a science, a field of applied research, a field of interdisciplinary research, and an academic discipline (at school and at a university).

Despite the fact that computer science as a science has appeared relatively recently (see below), its origin should be associated with the works of Leibniz on the construction of the first computer and the development of a universal (philosophical) calculus.

History of Information Technology

Informatics was recognized as a separate science only in the 1970s; before that, it was developed as a part of mathematics, electronics and other technical sciences. Some beginnings of computer science can be found even in linguistics. The first computer science department was founded in 1962 at Purdue University. Today, faculties and departments of computer science are available at most universities in the world.

In the schools of the USSR, the discipline "Informatics" appeared in 1985 simultaneously with the first textbook of A. P. Ershov "Fundamentals of computer science and computing technology"

The highest award for achievements in the field of informatics is the Turing Award.

December 4 is the Day of Russian informatics, since on this day in 1948 the State Committee of the USSR Council of Ministers on the introduction of advanced technology into the national economy registered the invention of I. S. Bruk and B. I. Rameyev for number 10 475 - a digital electronic computer [ 8] .

Informatics structure

Computer science is divided into a number of sections.

Theoretical Informatics

Theoretical computer science deals with theories of formal languages, automata, algorithms, computability and computational complexity, as well as computational graph theory, cryptology, logic (including propositional logic and predicate logic), formal semantics, and lays the theoretical foundations for developing compilers of programming languages.

Practical Informatics

Practical informatics provides fundamental concepts for solving standard tasks, such as storing and managing information using data structures, building algorithms, models for solving common or complex problems. Examples include the sorting and fast Fourier transform algorithms.

One of the central themes of practical computer science is software engineering (eng. Software engineering ). It is a systematic development process from the idea to the finished software.

Practical informatics also provides the necessary tools for software development, such as compilers.

Technical Informatics

Technical Informatics deals with the hardware of computing equipment, for example, the basics of microprocessor technology, computer architectures and distributed systems. Thus, it provides communication with electrical engineering. Computer architecture is a science exploring the concept of building computers. The interaction of the microprocessor, memory and peripheral controllers is determined and optimized here.

Another important area is communication between the machines. It provides electronic data exchange between computers and, therefore, provides a technical basis for the Internet. In addition to developing routers, switches, and firewalls, this discipline includes the development and standardization of network protocols, such as TCP, HTTP, or SOAP, for exchanging data between machines.

Applied Informatics

Applied informatics combines specific applications of informatics in various areas of life, science or industry, for example, business informatics, geoinformatics, computational linguistics, bioinformatics, chemoinformatics, etc.

Natural Informatics

Natural informatics is a natural science direction that studies the processes of information processing in nature, the brain and human society. It relies on such classical scientific directions as theories of evolution, morphogenesis and developmental biology, system studies, studies of the brain, DNA, the immune system and cell membranes, theory of management and group behavior, history and others [9] [10] . Cybernetics, defined as “the science of the general laws governing the processes of controlling and transmitting information in various systems, whether it be machines, living organisms or society” [11], is a close, but somewhat different scientific direction. Just like mathematics and the main part of modern computer science, it can hardly be referred to the field of natural sciences, since it differs sharply from them in its methodology. (Despite the widest use of mathematical and computer modeling in modern natural sciences.)

Info introduction

Basic terms

  • Information resources - various formalized knowledge (theories, ideas, inventions), data (including documents), technologies and means of their collection, processing, analysis, interpretation and application, as well as the exchange between sources and consumers of information.
  • Information technology :
    1. a set of scientific disciplines involved in the study, creation and application of methods, methods, actions, processes, means, rules, skills used to obtain new information (information, knowledge), collect, process, analyze, interpret, isolate and apply data, content and information in order to meet the information needs of the national economy and society in the required amount and of a given quality.
    2. a set of these methods, methods, actions, etc.
  • The information process is a sequence of actions (operations) for collecting, transmitting, processing, analyzing, isolating and using information (and / or its carriers) for various purposes during the operation and interaction of material objects.
  • Information technological process - a component of information technology as a practical tool for prescription activities, part of the production process, consisting of a sequence of agreed technological operations related to the collection and processing of as information carriers, extracting from them the necessary information, news, knowledge, their accumulation, analysis , interpretation and application.
created: 2014-09-13
updated: 2021-06-15
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Informatics

Terms: Informatics