The earliest foundations of what would become computer science predate the invention of the modern digital computer.

Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory to practical disciplines including the design and implementation of hardware and software. Computer science is generally considered an area of academic research and distinct from computer programming. Algorithms and data structures are central to computer science. The theory of computation concerns abstract models of computation and general classes of problems that can be solved using them. The fields of cryptography and computer security involve studying the means for secure communication and for preventing security vulnerabilities. Computer graphics and computational geometry address the generation of images. Programming language theory considers approaches to the description of computational processes, and database theory concerns the management of repositories of data. Human computer interaction investigates the interfaces through which humans and computers interact, and software engineering focuses on the design and principles behind developing software. Areas such as operating systems, networks & embedded systems investigate the principles and design behind complex systems. Computer architecture describes the construction of computer components and computer-operated equipment. Artificial intelligence and machine learning aim to synthesize goal-orientated processes such as problem-solving, decision-making, environmental adaptation, planning & learning founds in humans and animals. Within artificial intelligence, computer vision aims to understand and process image and video data, while natural-language processing aims to understand and process textual and linguistic data. The fundamental concern of computer science is determining what can and cannot be automated. The Turing Award is generally recognized as the highest distinction in computer science.A number of computer scientists have argued for the distinction of three separate paradigms in computer science. Peter Wegner argued that those paradigms are science, technology, and mathematics. Peter Denning's working group argued that they are theory, abstraction modeling, and design. Amnon H. Eden described them as the rationalist paradigm which treats computer science as a branch of mathematics, which is prevalent in theoretical computer science, and mainly employs deductive reasoning, the technocratic paradigm which might be found in engineering approaches, most prominently in software engineering), and the scientific paradigm which approaches computer-related artifacts from the empirical perspective of natural sciences, identifiable in some branches of artificial intelligence. Computer science focuses on methods involved in designs, specification, programming, verification, implementation & testing of human-made computing systems.Although first proposed in 1956, the term computer science appears in a 1959 article in Communications of the ACM, in which Louis Fein argues for the creation of a Graduate School in Computer Sciences analogous to the creation of Harvard Business School in 1921, justifying the name by arguing that, like management science, the subject is applied and interdisciplinary in nature, while having the characteristics typical of an academic discipline. His efforts, and those of others such as numerical analyst George Forsythe, were rewarded: universities went on to create such departments, starting with Purdue in 1962. Despite its name, a significant amount of computer science does not involve the study of computers themselves. Because of this, several alternative names have been proposed.