Informatics is the study of computational systems.[1][2] According to theACM Europe Council andInformatics Europe, informatics is synonymous withcomputer science andcomputing as a profession,[3] in which the central notion istransformation of information.[1][4] In some cases, the term "informatics" may also be used with different meanings, e.g., in the context ofsocial computing[5] orlibrary science.[6]
| United States | Germany | Russia | France | Italy | English transcription |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Computer science,Computing | Informatik | Информатика (Latinized:informatika) | Informatique | Informatica | Informatics |
| Theoretical computer science | Theoretische Informatik | Теоретическая информатика | Informatique théorique | Informatica teorica | Theoretical informatics |
| Computer engineering | Technische Informatik | Инженерная информатика | Ingénierie orgénie informatique | Ingegneria informatica | Technical informatics |
| Neurocomputing,Neural computation | Neuroinformatik | Нейроинформатика | Neuro-informatique | Neuroinformatica | Neuroinformatics |
| Psychoinformatics | Psychoinformatik | Психоинформатика | Psychoinformatique | Psicoinformatica | Psychoinformatics |
| Bioinformatics | Bioinformatik | Биоинформатика | Bioinformatique | Bioinformatica | Bioinformatics |
| Hydroinformatics | Hydroinformatik | Гидроинформатика | Hydroinformatique | Idroinformatica | Hydroinformatics |
| Ecoinformatics | Ökoinformatik | Экоинформатика | Écoinformatique | Ecoinformatica | Ecoinformatics |
| Social informatics | Sozioinformatik | Социальная информатика | Socioinformatique | Socioinformatica | Social informatics |
In some countries, depending on local interpretations and contexts, the term "informatics" is used synonymously to meaninformation systems,information science,information theory,information engineering,information technology, information processing, or other theoretical or practical fields. In Germany, the terminformatics closely corresponds to modern computer science. Accordingly, universities incontinental Europe usually translate "informatics" ascomputer science, or sometimesinformation and computer science, althoughtechnical universities may translate it ascomputer science & engineering.[7][8] In some countries, this term is associated withnatural computation andneural computation.[1][9]
In theUnited States, however, the terminformatics is mostly used in context ofdata science,library science[6] or its applications inhealthcare (health informatics),[10][11] where it first appeared in the US.
TheUniversity of Washington uses this term to refer tosocial computing.[5]
TheGovernment of Canada uses the term to refer to operational units offering network and computer services to the various departments.[12]
In 1956, the German informaticianKarl Steinbuch and engineerHelmut Gröttrup coined the wordInformatik when they developed theInformatik-Anlage[13] for theQuelle mail-order management, one of the earliest commercial applications of data processing. In April 1957, Steinbuch published a paper calledInformatik: Automatische Informationsverarbeitung ("Informatics: Automatic Information Processing").[14] 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",[15] and so, linguistically, the meaning extends easily to encompass both the science of information and the practice of information processing. The German wordInformatik is usually translated to English as[16]computer science by universities orcomputer science & engineering by technical universities (German equivalents for institutes of technology). Depending on the context, informatics is also translated intocomputing,scientific computing orinformation and computer technology. TheFrench terminformatique was coined in 1962 byPhilippe Dreyfus.[17] In the same month was also proposed independently by Walter F. Bauer (1924–2015) and associates who co-founded software companyInformatics 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.[18][1]
The earliest uses of the terminformatics in theUnited States was during the 1950s with the beginning of computer use inhealthcare.[19] Early practitioners interested in the field soon learned that there were no formal education programs, and none emerged until the late 1960s. They introduced the term informatics only in the context ofarchival science, which is only a small part of informatics. Professional development, therefore, played a significant role in the development of health informatics.[19] 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.[20][21] The termhealth informatics quickly spread throughout the United States in various forms such asnursing informatics,public health informatics ormedical informatics. Analogous terms were later introduced for use of computers in various fields, such asbusiness informatics,forest informatics,legal informatics etc. These fields still mainly use term informatics in context of library science.
In the early 1980s, K.A Nicholas published "Informatics: Ready for the Information Society" proposing a definition of Informatics as "the study and the practice of skills related to information, its collection, storage, retrieval, analysis and publication. In short; - Information Handling." It had been developed in the South Australian Education System at a grass roots level. <K.A Nicholas published "Informatics: Ready for the Information Society" 1983 - National Library of Australia>
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.[22]
A broad interpretation ofinformatics, as "the study of the structure, algorithms, behaviour, and interactions of natural and artificial computational systems," was introduced by theUniversity of Edinburgh in 1994. This has led to the merger of the institutes of computer science, artificial intelligence and cognitive science into a singleSchool of Informatics in 2002.[23]
More than a dozen nearby universities joinedScottish 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 termcognitive informatics, described as follows:[24]
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 artificial systems was proposed again in Russia in 2006.[25]
In 2007, the influential bookDecoding the Universe was published.
Former president ofAssociation for Computing Machinery, Peter Denning wrote in 2007:[26]
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 2008Research Assessment Exercise, of the UK Funding Councils, includes a new,Computer Science and Informatics, unit of assessment (UoA),[27] whose scope is described as follows:
In 2008, the construction of theInformatics Forum was completed. In 2018, theMIT Schwarzman College of Computing was established. Its construction is planned to be completed in 2021.
In the fields ofgeoinformatics orirrigation informatics, the term -informatics usually meaninformation science, in context related tolibrary science. This was the first meaning of informatics introduced inRussia 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.[22] In this context, the term was also used by theInternational Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility. Some scientists use this term, however, to refer to the science of information processing, notdata management.[28]
In the English-speaking world, the terminformatics was first widely used in the compoundmedical 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".[29] Many such compounds are now in use; they can be viewed as different areas of "applied informatics".
In some countries such as Germany, Russia, France, and Italy, the terminformatics in many contexts (but not always) can translate directly tocomputer science.[30]
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]
Steinbuch coined this expression together with Helmut Gröttrup, an employee from Peenemünde.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)