Informatics

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Informatics is the study of computational systems, especially those for data storage and retrieval.[1][2] According to ACM Europe and Informatics Europe, informatics is synonymous with computer science and computing as a profession,[3] in which the central notion is transformation of information.[1][4] In other countries, the term "informatics" is used with a different meaning in the context of library science.[5]

Different meanings

Informatics Forum
Informatics Forum, completed in 2008. It houses researchers of the University of Edinburgh's School of Informatics.

In some countries, depending on local interpretations, the term "informatics" is used synonymously to mean information systems, information science, information theory, information engineering, information technology, information processing, or other theoretical or practical fields. In Germany, the term informatics almost exactly corresponds to modern computer science. Accordingly, universities in continental Europe usually translate "informatics" as computer science, or sometimes information and computer science, although technical universities may translate it as computer science & engineering.[6][7]

In the United States, however, the term informatics is mostly used in context of data science, library science[5] or its applications in healthcare (biomedical informatics),[8][9] where it first appeared in the US.

The University of Washington uses this term to refer to social computing.[10] In some countries, this term is associated with natural computation and neural computation.[1][11]

The Government of Canada uses the term to refer to operational units offering network and computer services to the various departments.[12]

Etymology

In 1956, the German informatician Karl Steinbuch coined the word Informatik, publishing a paper called Informatik: Automatische Informationsverarbeitung ("Informatics: Automatic Information Processing").[13] The morphology—informat-ion + -ics—uses "the accepted form for names of sciences, as conics, mathematics, linguistics, optics, or matters of practice, as economics, politics, tactics",[14] and so, linguistically, the meaning extends easily to encompass both the science of information and the practice of information processing. The German word Informatik is usually translated to English as[15]computer science by universities or computer science & engineering by technical universities (German equivalents for institutes of technology). Depending on the context, informatics is also translated into computing, scientific computing or information and computer technology. The French term informatique was coined in 1962 by Philippe Dreyfus.[16] In the same month was also proposed independently by Walter F. Bauer (1924–2015) and associates who co-founded software company Informatics Inc. The term for the new discipline quickly spread throughout Europe, but it did not catch on in the United States. Over the years, many different definitions of informatics have been developed, most of them claim that the essence of informatics is one of these concepts: information processing, algorithms, computation, information, algorithmic processes, computational processes or computational systems.[17][1]

The earliest uses of the term informatics in the United States was during the 1950s with the beginning of computer use in healthcare.[18] Early practitioners interested in the field soon learned that there were no formal education programs, and none emerged until the late 1960s. Unfortunately, they introduced the term informatics only in the context of archival science, which is only a small part of informatics. Professional development, therefore, played a significant role in the development of health informatics.[18] According to Imhoff et al., 2001, healthcare informatics is not only the application of computer technology to problems in healthcare, but covers all aspects of generation, handling, communication, storage, retrieval, management, analysis, discovery, and synthesis of data information and knowledge in the entire scope of healthcare. Furthermore, they stated that the primary goal of health informatics can be distinguished as follows: To provide solutions for problems related to data, information, and knowledge processing. To study general principles of processing data information and knowledge in medicine and healthcare.[19][20] The term health informatics quickly spread throughout the United States in various forms such as nursing informatics, public health informatics or medical informatics. Analogous terms were later introduced for use of computers in various fields, such as business informatics, forest informatics, legal informatics etc. Unfortunately, these fields still mainly use term informatics in context of library science.

Informatics as library science

In the fields of geoinformatics or irrigation informatics, the term -informatics usually mean information science, in context related to library science. This was the first meaning of informatics introduced in Russia in 1966 by A.I. Mikhailov, R.S. Gilyarevskii, and A.I. Chernyi, which referred to a scientific discipline that studies the structure and properties of scientific information.[21] In this context, the term was also used by the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility. Some scientists use this term, however, to refer to the science of information processing, not data management.[22]

In the English-speaking world, the term informatics was first widely used in the compound medical informatics, taken to include "the cognitive, information processing, and communication tasks of medical practice, education, and research, including information science and the technology to support these tasks".[23] Many such compounds are now in use; they can be viewed as different areas of "applied informatics".

Informatics as information processing science

In the early 1990s, K.K. Kolin proposed an interpretation of informatics as a fundamental science that studies information processes in nature, society, and technical systems.[21]

A broad interpretation of informatics, as "the study of the structure, algorithms, behaviour, and interactions of natural and artificial computational systems," was introduced by the University of Edinburgh in 1994. This has led to the merger of the institutes of computer science, artificial intelligence and cognitive science into a single School of Informatics in 2002.[24]

More than a dozen nearby universities joined Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance. Some non-European universities have also adopted this definition (e.g. Kyoto University School of Informatics).

In 2003, Yingxu Wang popularized term cognitive informatics, described as follows:[25]

Supplementary to matter and energy, information is the third essence for modeling the world. Cognitive informatics focuses on internal information processing mechanisms and the natural intelligence of the brain.

Informatics as a fundamental science of information in natural and artifficial systems was proposed again in Russia in 2006.[26]

In 2007, the influential book Decoding the Universe was published.

Former president of Association for Computing Machinery, Peter Denning wrote in 2007:[27]

The old definition of computer science - the study of phenomena surrounding computers - is now obsolete. Computing is the study of natural and artificial information processes.

The 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, of the UK Funding Councils, includes a new, Computer Science and Informatics, unit of assessment (UoA),[28] whose scope is described as follows:

The UoA includes the study of methods for acquiring, storing, processing, communicating and reasoning about information, and the role of interactivity in natural and artificial systems, through the implementation, organisation and use of computer hardware, software and other resources. The subjects are characterised by the rigorous application of analysis, experimentation and design.

In 2008, the construction of the Informatics Forum was completed. In 2018, the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing was established. Its construction is planned to be completed in 2021.

Controversial fields

  • evolutionary informatics - a new field that comes from the concept of an intelligent design. According to Evolutionary Informatics Lab, evolutionary informatics studies how evolving systems incorporate, transform, and export information.[29] In 2017, the influential book "Introduction To Evolutionary Informatics" was published.[30]

Informatics as computer science

United States Germany Russia France Italy English transcription
Computer Science, Computing Informatik информатика (latinized: informatika) Informatique Informatica Informatics
Theoretical Computer Science Theoretische Informatik компьютерная наука Informatique théorique Informatica teorica Theoretical Informatics
Computer Engineering Technische Informatik компьютерная инженерия Ingénierie or génie informatique Ingegneria informatica Technical Informatics,
Neurocomputing, Neural computation Neuroinformatik нейроинформатика Neuro-informatique Neuroinformatica Neuroinformatics

Related topics

Computer scientists study computational processes and systems. Computing Research Repository (CoRR) classification distinguishes the following main topics in computer science (alphabetic order):[31][32][33]

Journals and conferences

  • Information and Computation
  • Acta Informatica
  • Information Processing Letters
  • Neural Information Processing Systems
  • Journal of Automata, Languages and Combinatorics
  • International Journal of Cognitive Informatics and Natural Intelligence[34]
  • Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition[35])
  • Symposium on Theory of Computing
  • European Conference on Computer Vision
  • Brain Informatics[36]
  • International Conference on Computer Vision
  • International Conference on Machine Learning
  • Algorithmica
  • Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science[37])
  • European Symposium on Algorithms
  • Fundamenta Informaticae
  • Symposium on Discrete Algorithms
  • Journal of Logic and Computation
  • Bioinformatics
  • Neural Computing and Applications[38]
  • Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems[39]
  • International Symposium on Fundamentals of Computation Theory
  • International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming
  • Journal of Scientific Computing[40]
  • Annual IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science
  • Annual Symposium on Computational Geometry
  • Simulation & Gaming[41]
  • Journal of Machine Learning Research
  • Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research
  • ACM Transactions on Graphics
  • IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics
  • IEEE Transactions on Computers
  • IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Microarchitecture
  • ACM Symposium on Computer and Communications Security[42]
  • Symposium on Parallelism in Algorithms and Architectures
  • Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science

Community

Related organisations

  • Informatics Europe
  • Association for Computing Machinery
  • IEEE Computer Society
  • Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance
  • Computing Research Association
  • Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence
  • American Society for Information Science and Technology
  • International Federation for Information Processing
  • Association for Logic, Language and Information
  • Gesellschaft für Informatik
  • Association for Women in Computing
  • Computer Science Teachers Association
  • Computability in Europe
  • European Association for Theoretical Computer Science
  • Raspberry Pi Foundation

Academic schools and departments

  • MIT Schwarzman College of Computing at Massachusetts Institute of Technology[43]
  • Department for Informatics at University of Hamburg[44]
  • School of Computer Science & Engineering at University of Washington[45]
  • Department of Computer Science and Engineering at University of Notre Dame[46]
  • School of Informatics at University of Edinburgh[47]
  • Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford[48]
  • Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Santa Clara University[49]
  • Faculty for Computer Science and Engineering at University of Michigan[50]
  • Department of Computer Science & Engineering at University of Nevada[51]
  • Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences[52]
  • Institute of Neuroinformatics at University of Zurich[53]
  • Department of Computer Science at American University of Beirut[54]
  • Department of Computing at Imperial College London[55]
  • Institut für Neuroinformatik at Ruhr-Universität Bochum[56]
  • Stanford University's Computer Science Department[57]
  • Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley[58]
  • Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at University of Cantenbury[59]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d "What is Informatics? University of Edinburgh" (PDF).
  2. ^ "INFORMATICS | Bedeutung im Cambridge Englisch Wörterbuch". dictionary.cambridge.org (in German).
  3. ^ "Are We All In The Same Boat? ACM & Informatics Europe" (PDF).
  4. ^ "What is Informatics? - Definition from Techopedia". Techopedia.com.
  5. ^ a b Wellisch, Hans (1972-07-01). "From Information Science to Informatics: a terminological investigation". Journal of Librarianship. 4 (3): 157–187. doi:10.1177/096100067200400302. ISSN 0022-2232. S2CID 62708018.
  6. ^ "Computer Science and Computer Engineering | Hochschule Osnabrück". www.hs-osnabrueck.de. Retrieved 2020-08-31.
  7. ^ "Informatik – Technische Informatik (B.Sc.) | Hochschule Osnabrück". www.hs-osnabrueck.de. Retrieved 2020-08-31.
  8. ^ "What is Informatics? USF Health". www.usfhealthonline.com. Retrieved 2020-08-20.
  9. ^ "Informatics Major". ischool.uw.edu. Retrieved 2020-08-20.
  10. ^ "Informatics Major". ischool.uw.edu.
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  12. ^ https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2alpha/alpha-eng.html?lang=eng&i=1&srchtxt=informatics&index=enb&codom2nd_wet=1#resultrecs
  13. ^ "Karl Steinbuch Eulogy – Bernard Widrow, Reiner Hartenstein, Robert Hecht-Nielsen" (PDF). uni-kl.de.
  14. ^ Oxford English Dictionary 1989
  15. ^ CTKlein. "Best word for "computer science"". German Language Stack Exchange. Stack Exchange Inc. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
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  17. ^ Wegner, Peter. "Research paradigms in Computer Science, Brown University" (PDF).
  18. ^ a b Nelson, Ramona; Staggers, Nancy (8 December 2016). Health Informatics: An Interprofessional Approach. Elsevier Health Sciences. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-323-40225-5.
  19. ^ Imhoff, M., Webb. A,.&Goldschmidt, A., (2001). Health Informatics. Intensive Care Med, 27: 179-186. doi:10.1007//s001340000747.
  20. ^ Nelson, R. & Staggers, N. Health Informatics: An Interprofessional Approach. St. Louis: Mosby, 2013. Print. (p.4,7)
  21. ^ a b Yatsko, Viatcheslav A. (2018). "Informatics, Information Science, and Computer Science". Scientific and Technical Information Processing.
  22. ^ Wang, Yingxu (2013). "Basic theories for neuroinformatics and neurocomputing". 2013 IEEE 12th International Conference on Cognitive Informatics and Cognitive Computing: 3–4. doi:10.1109/ICCI-CC.2013.6622217. ISBN 978-1-4799-0783-0. S2CID 12488667.
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  25. ^ Wang, Yingxu (2003-08-01). "On Cognitive Informatics". Brain and Mind. 4 (2): 151–167. doi:10.1023/A:1025401527570. ISSN 1573-3300. S2CID 61495426.
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  29. ^ "The Evolutionary Informatics Lab – The Evolutionary Informatics Lab".
  30. ^ Robert J. Marks II. "Top Ten Questions and Objections to Introduction to Evolutionary Informatics".
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  37. ^ "Alvy Ray Smith synapse FOCS Cover". alvyray.com.
  38. ^ "Neural Computing and Applications". Springer.
  39. ^ "Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems". Springer.
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  41. ^ "Simulation & Gaming". SAGE Journals.
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  43. ^ "Home | MIT Schwarzman College of Computing | Massachusetts Institute of Technology". computing.mit.edu.
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  45. ^ "Welcome to Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering | Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering". www.cs.washington.edu.
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  49. ^ "Department of Computer Science and Engineering - School of Engineering - Santa Clara University". www.scu.edu.
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  51. ^ "Computer Science & Engineering". University of Nevada, Reno.
  52. ^ "Computer Science | Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences". www.seas.harvard.edu.
  53. ^ "Institute of Neuroinformatics at University of Zurich".
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Further reading

By: Wikipedia.org
Edited: 2021-06-19 10:57:05
Source: Wikipedia.org