The history of computer science

The history of computer science predates the invention of the modern digital computer. Before the 1920's, the term computer referred to a man who performed calculations. [5] The first researchers in what later would become computer science, were interested in the question of computability: what things can be computed by a human being who simply follow a list of instructions with paper and pencil, for as long as necessary, with ingenuity and without prior knowledge of the problem. Part of the motivation for this work was to develop computing machines, and that could automate the tedious and error-filled work of human computation.

During the 1940's, as they develop new and more powerful computing machines, the term computer was first used to refer to machines rather than their human predecessors. As it became clear that computers could be used for more things than just mathematical calculations, the field of computer science was extended to study computing (computer science) in general. Computer Science then began to establish itself as an academic discipline in the 1960 with the creation of the first departments of computer science and first degree programs (Denning 2000).