Informatics is the study of computational systems. According to the ACM Europe Council and

Informatics Europe Informatics Europe is the European association uniting university departments, research labs and companies in the field of informatics (also known as computer science). Overview Founded in 2006,Bertrand Meyer and Willy Zwaenepoel, ''European Compu ...

, informatics is synonymous with

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

and

computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computer, computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and the development of both computer hardware, hardware and softw ...

as a profession, in which the central notion is transformation of information. In some cases, the term "informatics" may also be used with different meanings, e.g., in the context of social computing or

library science Library and information science (LIS)Library and Information Sciences is the name used in the Dewey Decimal Classification for class 20 from the 18th edition (1971) to the 22nd edition (2003). are two interconnected disciplines that deal with info ...

Different meanings

In some countries, depending on local interpretations and contexts, the term "informatics" is used synonymously to mean

information system An information system (IS) is a formal, sociotechnical, organizational system designed to collect, process, Information Processing and Management, store, and information distribution, distribute information. From a sociotechnical perspective, info ...

s, information science,

information theory Information theory is the mathematical study of the quantification (science), quantification, Data storage, storage, and telecommunications, communication of information. The field was established and formalized by Claude Shannon in the 1940s, ...

information engineering Information engineering is the engineering discipline that deals with the generation, distribution, analysis, and use of information, data, and knowledge in electrical systems. The field first became identifiable in the early 21st century. Th ...

information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

, information processing, or other theoretical or practical fields. In Germany, the term ''informatics'' closely corresponds to modern computer science. Accordingly, universities in

continental Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous mainland of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by som ...

usually translate "informatics" as

, or sometimes information and computer science, although technical universities may translate it as computer science & engineering. In some countries, this term is associated with natural computation and neural computation. In the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, however, the term ''informatics'' is mostly used in context of

data science Data science is an interdisciplinary academic field that uses statistics, scientific computing, scientific methods, processing, scientific visualization, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge from potentially noisy, stru ...

or its applications in

healthcare Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

(

health informatics Health informatics combines communications, information technology (IT), and health care to enhance patient care and is at the forefront of the medical technological revolution. It can be viewed as a branch of engineering and applied science. ...

), where it first appeared in the US. The

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

uses this term to refer to social computing. The

Government of Canada The Government of Canada (), formally His Majesty's Government (), is the body responsible for the federation, federal administration of Canada. The term ''Government of Canada'' refers specifically to the executive, which includes Minister of t ...

uses the term to refer to operational units offering network and computer services to the various departments.

Etymology

In 1956, the German informatician Karl Steinbuch and engineer Helmut Gröttrup coined the word ''Informatik'' when they developed the ''Informatik-Anlage'' for the Quelle mail-order management, one of the earliest commercial applications of data processing. In April 1957, Steinbuch published a paper called ''Informatik: Automatische Informationsverarbeitung'' ("Informatics: Automatic Information Processing"). 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", 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 ''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. 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. The earliest uses of the term ''informatics'' in the

was during the 1950s with the beginning of computer use in

. 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 of

archival science Archival science, or archival studies, is the study and theory of building and Curator, curating archives, which are collections of documents, Sound recording and reproduction, recordings, photographs and various other materials in physical or di ...

, which is only a small part of informatics. Professional development, therefore, played a significant role in the development of health informatics. 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''. The term

quickly spread throughout the United States in various forms such as

nursing informatics Health informatics combines communications, information technology (IT), and health care to enhance patient care and is at the forefront of the medical technological revolution. It can be viewed as a branch of engineering and applied science. ...

, 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. These fields still mainly use term informatics in context of library science.

Informatics as information processing 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. 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. 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 The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

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. 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: Informatics as a fundamental science of information in natural and artificial systems was proposed again in Russia in 2006. In 2007, the influential book '' Decoding the Universe'' was published. Former president of

Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membe ...

, Peter Denning wrote in 2007: The 2008

Research Assessment Exercise The Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) was an exercise undertaken approximately every five years on behalf of the four UK higher education funding councils ( HEFCE, SHEFC, HEFCW, DELNI) to evaluate the quality of research undertaken by British ...

, of the UK Funding Councils, includes a new, ''Computer Science and Informatics,'' unit of assessment (UoA), 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.

Informatics as information science

In the fields of geoinformatics or irrigation informatics, the term -informatics usually mean information science, in context related to

. This was the first meaning of informatics introduced in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

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. 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 Data management comprises all disciplines related to handling data as a valuable resource, it is the practice of managing an organization's data so it can be analyzed for decision making. Concept The concept of data management emerged alongsi ...

. 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". Many such compounds are now in use; they can be viewed as different areas of "''applied informatics''".

Informatics as computer science

In some countries such as Germany, Russia, France, and Italy, the term ''informatics'' in many contexts (but not always) can translate directly to ''computer science''.

Journals and conferences

* '' Information and Computation'' * '' Acta Informatica'' * ''

Information Processing Letters ''Information Processing Letters'' is a peer review, peer-reviewed scientific journal in the field of computer science, published by Elsevier. The aim of the journal is to enable fast dissemination of results in the field of Data processing, inform ...

'' * '' Neural Information Processing Systems'' * '' Journal of Automata, Languages and Combinatorics'' * ''International Journal of Cognitive Informatics and Natural Intelligence'' * '' Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition'') * '' Symposium on Theory of Computing'' * '' European Conference on Computer Vision'' * ''Brain Informatics'' * '' International Conference on Computer Vision'' * '' International Conference on Machine Learning'' * '' Algorithmica'' * '' Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science')'' * '' European Symposium on Algorithms'' * '' Fundamenta Informaticae'' * '' Symposium on Discrete Algorithms'' * '' Journal of Logic and Computation'' * ''Bioinformatics'' * ''Neural Computing and Applications'' * Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems * '' International Symposium on Fundamentals of Computation Theory'' * '' International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming'' * ''Journal of Scientific Computing'' * ''Annual IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science'' * ''Annual Symposium on Computational Geometry'' * '' Simulation & Gaming'' * '' 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'' * ''

Symposium on Parallelism in Algorithms and Architectures In Ancient Greece, the symposium (, ''sympósion'', from συμπίνειν, ''sympínein'', 'to drink together') was the part of a banquet that took place after the meal, when drinking for pleasure was accompanied by music, dancing, recitals, o ...

'' * '' Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science''

Community

Related organisations

IEEE Computer Society IEEE Computer Society (commonly known as the Computer Society or CS) is a technical society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) dedicated to computing, namely the major areas of hardware, software, standards and people ...

* Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance * Computing Research Association *

Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) is an international Learned society, scientific society devoted to promote research in, and responsible use of, artificial intelligence. AAAI also aims to increase public under ...

American Society for Information Science and Technology American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, ...

International Federation for Information Processing The International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) is a global organisation for researchers and professionals working in the field of computing to conduct research, develop standards and promote information sharing. Established in 19 ...

* 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

* Information School at

* College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at

University at Albany, SUNY The State University of New York at Albany (University at Albany, UAlbany, or SUNY Albany) is a Public university, public research university in Albany, New York, United States. Founded in 1844, it is one of four "university centers" of the St ...

* Department of Informatics at

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...

* College of Literature, Science, and the Arts at

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

* School of Information at The University of Texas at Austin * Manning College of Information & Computer Sciences at University of Massachusetts Amherst * Texas Women's University * College of Literature, Science, and the Arts at

* Department of Informatics at

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, IUB, or Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana, United States. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana Univer ...

* School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis * School of Information at

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the List of oldest schools in California, oldest public university on the West Coast of ...

* School of Computing and Informatics at

University of Louisiana at Lafayette The University of Louisiana at Lafayette (UL Lafayette, University of Louisiana, ULL, or UL) is a Public university, public research university in Lafayette, Louisiana, United States. It has the largest enrollment within the nine-campus Universi ...

* Department of Computer Science at The University of Iowa * Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...

* School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems at Northern Arizona University * School of Engineering and Computer Science at

Baylor University Baylor University is a Private university, private Baptist research university in Waco, Texas, United States. It was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Te ...

* College of Information Sciences and Technology at

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsyl ...

* College of Engineering and Computing at

University of South Carolina The University of South Carolina (USC, SC, or Carolina) is a Public university, public research university in Columbia, South Carolina, United States. Founded in 1801 as South Carolina College, It is the flagship of the University of South Car ...

* Doctoral School of Informatics at University of Debrecen * School of Information Sciences at

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...

* Institute for Data Science & Informatics at

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

Norwegian University of Science and Technology The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU; ) is a public university, public research university in Norway and the largest in terms of enrollment. The university's headquarters is located in Trondheim (city), Trondheim, with region ...

* Department of Informatics at

University of Bergen The University of Bergen () is a public university, public research university in Bergen, Norway. As of 2021, the university had over 4,000 employees and 19,000 students. It was established by an act of parliament in 1946 consolidating several sci ...

* School of Informatics at

* Department of Informatics at Technical University of Munich * Università della Svizzera italiana * List of Information Schools

Different meanings

Etymology

Informatics as information processing science

Informatics as information science

Informatics as computer science

Related topics

Journals and conferences

Community

Related organisations

Academic schools and departments

See also

References

Further reading