News tagged with computer scientists

Harvard group takes complexity out of video face replacement (w/ video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- From Facebook to YouTube to on the fly film projects, the presentation of content that entertains or instructs or both draws on visual tools, ranging from simple to complex. Novice as well ...

Technology / Computer Sciences

created Dec 05, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 3 | with audio podcast report

DARPA Shredder Challenge sizzling but no winner yet

(PhysOrg.com) -- With only days left until the December 4 Shredder Challenge deadline, DARPA is still asking the sharpest-minded computer scientists and simply the curious if anyone among them has the skills ...

Technology / Computer Sciences

created Nov 22, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 1 | with audio podcast report

Kilobots - tiny, collaborative robots - are leaving the nest (w/ video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Kilobots are coming. Computer scientists and engineers at Harvard University have developed and licensed technology that will make it easy to test collective algorithms on hundreds, or ...

Electronics / Robotics

created Nov 21, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (24) | comments 15 | with audio podcast

Computer scientist cracks mysterious 'Copiale Cipher'

The manuscript seems straight out of fiction: a strange handwritten message in abstract symbols and Roman letters meticulously covering 105 yellowing pages, hidden in the depths of an academic archive.

Technology / Computer Sciences

created Oct 25, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (26) | comments 21 | with audio podcast

Next generation of algorithms inspired by problem-solving ants

(PhysOrg.com) -- An ant colony is the last place you'd expect to find a maths whiz, but University of Sydney researchers have shown that the humble ant is capable of solving difficult mathematical problems.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Dec 10, 2010 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (27) | comments 11 | with audio podcast

Your web surfing history accessible via JavaScript: researchers

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Web surfing history saved in your Web browser can be accessed without your permission. JavaScript code deployed by real websites and online advertising providers use browser vulnerabilities ...

Technology / Computer Sciences

created Dec 03, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (17) | comments 43 | with audio podcast

Computer scientists make progress on math puzzle

(PhysOrg.com) -- Two UT Dallas computer scientists have made progress on a nearly 4-decade-old mathematical puzzle, producing a proof that renowned Stanford computer scientist Don Knuth called "amazing" in his communication ...

Other Sciences / Mathematics

created Oct 28, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (23) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

'Dark silicon' to improve smartphone battery life

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new smartphone chip prototype under development at the University of California, San Diego will improve smartphone efficiency by making use of "dark silicon" - the underused transistors ...

Technology / Computer Sciences

created Sep 01, 2010 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (10) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

'Digital genome' time capsule stored under the Swiss Alps

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists in Europe have created a time capsule they call a 'digital genome,' and deposited it in a bunker known as the Swiss Fort Knox, which lies deep beneath the ski slopes of the Swiss ...

Technology / Computer Sciences

created May 21, 2010 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (15) | comments 3 | with audio podcast report

Google PageRank-like algorithm dates back to 1941

(PhysOrg.com) -- When Sergey Brin and Larry Page developed their PageRank algorithm for ranking webpages in 1998, they certainly knew that the seeds of the algorithm had been sown long before that time, as ...

Technology / Computer Sciences

created Feb 19, 2010 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (13) | comments 5 | with audio podcast report

Computer mimics nature by watching TV (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- Computer scientists at the University of Bath have developed a new way of making life-like animations of trees using video footage of the real thing.

Technology / Computer Sciences

created Jan 28, 2010 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Researchers bring noise to virtual worlds

(PhysOrg.com) -- Computer scientists have developed a method to synthesize the sounds of cymbals, falling garbage cans and lids, and plastic water-cooler bottles and recycling bins.

Technology / Computer Sciences

created Oct 27, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 1

Computer scientists scale 'layer 2' data center networks to 100,000 ports and beyond

University of California, San Diego computer scientists have created software that they hope will lead to data centers that logically function as single, plug-and-play networks that will scale to the massive ...

Technology / Computer Sciences

created Aug 17, 2009 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0

When virtual reality feels real (w/Video)

Despite advances in computer graphics, few people would think virtual characters or objects are real. Yet placed in a virtual reality environment most people will interact with them as if they are really there. ...

Technology / Computer Sciences

created May 11, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 1

Computer scientists deploy first practical, Web-based, secure, verifiable voting system

Computer scientists affiliated with the Center for Research on Computation and Society (CRCS), based at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), in collaboration with scientists at the Université ...

Technology / Computer Sciences

created Mar 05, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (30) | comments 12

Computer science

Computer science (or computing science) is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation, and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems. It is frequently described as the systematic study of algorithmic processes that describe and transform information. According to Peter J. Denning, the fundamental question underlying computer science is, "What can be (efficiently) automated?" 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 theory studies approaches to describing 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 vocational areas 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.

For more information about Computer science, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.