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Concept
Computer scientist
Summary
A computer scientist is a scholar who specializes in the academic study of computer science.
Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (although there is overlap). Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on specific areas (such as algorithm and data structure development and design, software engineering, information theory, database theory, computational complexity theory, numerical analysis, programming language theory, computer graphics, and computer vision), their foundation is the theoretical study of computing from which these other fields derive.
A primary goal of computer scientists is to develop or validate models, often mathematical, to describe the properties of computational systems (processors, programs, computers interacting with people, computers interacting with other computers, etc.) with an overall objective of discovering designs that yield useful benefits (faster, smaller, cheaper, more precise, etc.).
Most computer scientists are required to possess a PhD, M.S. in computer science, or other similar fields like Information and Computer Science (CIS), or a closely related discipline such as mathematics or physics.
Theoretical computer science – including data structures and algorithms, theory of computation, information theory and coding theory, programming language theory, and formal methods
Computer systems – including computer architecture and computer engineering, computer performance analysis, concurrency, and distributed computing, computer networks, computer security and cryptography, and databases.
Computer applications – including computer graphics and visualization, human–computer interaction, scientific computing, and artificial intelligence.
Software engineering – the application of engineering to software development in a systematic method
Computer scientists are often hired by software publishing firms, scientific research and development organizations where they develop the theories that allow new technologies to be developed.
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