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Computer science is the study of computers and computational systems: their theory, design, development, and application. Principal areas within computer science include artificial intelligence, computer systems, database systems, human factors, numerical analysis, programming languages, software engineering, and theory of computing. Computer science incorporates concepts from mathematics, engineering, and psychology.
Computer programming is only one element of computer science. A computer scientist is concerned with problem solving. Problems range from abstract (determining what problems can be solved with computers and the complexity of the algorithms that solve them) to practical (design of computer systems easy for human use). Computer scientists build computational models of systems including physical phenomena (weather forecasting), human behavior (expert systems, robotics), and computer systems themselves (performance evaluation). Such models often require extensive numeric or symbolic computation.
Computer scientists design and analyze algorithms to solve problems, and develop and study the performance of computer hardware and software.