[SIGCIS-Members] Origin of "Computer Science"

[Pierre Mounier]

Martin,

For continental Europe, I would consider two meetings as major steps  
toward a "Computer Science awareness":

- The founding conference of IFIP at Unesco (Paris, 1959), which  
offered a vast overview on novel research themes (languages, etc.),  
beyond the use of computers as tools for numerical analysis. The  
proceedings can be found online to check whether the very  term  
“computer science” was used.

- The meeting hosted in October 1961 at IBM’s European education  
center (Blaricum, Netherlands) on the Relationship Between Non- 
numerical Programming and the Theory of Formal Systems. John McCarthy  
presented his manifesto, “A Basis for a Mathematical Theory of  
Computation”, proclaiming the foundation of a new science of  
computation based on numerical analysis, recursive function theory and  
automata theory.

(I wrote something about it in http://www.computing-conference.ugent.be/file/12)

The quest for a term equivalent to "Computer Science" before 1960 is  
revealed by neologisms: "Informatik" in Germany and "Automatique des  
informations" in France, both in 1957 – partly to distinguish  
computing from cybernetics.

Best
Pierre Mounier-Kuhn

PS: I would have the same query for the term "Discrete Mathematics"…  
The journal Discrete Mathematics was established in 1971, yet did not  
detail the motivations for its title.


Le 28 juin 13 à 20:40, Janet Abbate a écrit :

> Martin,
>
> That's an excellent question; I am also exploring this area. Most  
> people seem to date the term to Louis Fein's 1959 article "The Role  
> of the University in Computers, Data Processing, and Related  
> Fields," which uses the plural "computer sciences." The term is also  
> used in Philip Morse's 1960 "Report on a Conference of University  
> Computing Center Directors," which describes actual computer science  
> programs at universities. By 1962 you start to see advertisements  
> using the term, which may indicate broad acceptance. For example:
>
> 1962 ad in American Scientist by Research Analysis Corporation  
> (Bethesda, MD): “New Directions in Computer Science.” ... “RAC  
> scientists, engineers, and computer analysts ... reach well beyond  
> the existing body of knowledge in computer science. The results have  
> been twofold—new capabilities to predict and control, and new  
> contributions to computer science and science in general.” RAC  
> “currently offers career appointments to physicists, engineers,  
> mathematicians, economists, and computer scientists, with graduate  
> degrees.”
>
> This mainly applies to the US. I think "information science" or  
> "informatics" may have been more common in Europe.
>
> References:
> Fein, Louis. "The Role of the University in Computers, Data  
> Processing, and Related Fields." Communications of the ACM 2, no. 9  
> (1959): 7-14.
> Morse, Philip M. . "Report on a Conference of University Computing  
> Center Directors (June 2-4 1960)." Commun. ACM 3, no. 10 (1960):  
> 519-21.
>
> Janet
>
> Dr. Janet Abbate
> Associate Professor
> Science & Technology in Society
> Virginia Tech
> www.sts.vt.edu/ncr
> www.linkedin.com/groups/STS-Virginia-Tech-4565055
> www.facebook.com/VirginiaTechSTS
>
> On Jun 28, 2013, at 1:59 43PM, Martin Campbell-Kelly wrote:
>
>> I’m trying to find when the term “computer science” came into  
>> general use. The term “software” seems to be quite accurately dated  
>> as appearing in 1960 in several contemporary publications, but I  
>> have found nothing similar for computer science.
>>
>> Martin
>>
>> —
>> Martin Campbell-Kelly, Dept of Computer Science
>> University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, U.K.
>> voice: +44 24 7652 3193 fax: +44 24 7657 3024
>> email: M.Campbell-Kelly at warwick.ac.uk
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion  
>> list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are athttp://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ 
>>  and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion  
> list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ 
>  and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/attachments/20130629/3ca5974d/attachment-0001.htm>