Foundations of Data Science
- Author: Avrim Blum, John Hopcroft, and Ravindran Kannan
- Year: 2018
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Introduction
Computer science as an academic discipline began in the 1960’s. Emphasis was on
programming languages, compilers, operating systems, and the mathematical theory that
supported these areas. Courses in theoretical computer science covered nite automata,
regular expressions, context-free languages, and computability. In the 1970’s, the study
of algorithms was added as an important component of theory. The emphasis was on
making computers useful. Today, a fundamental change is taking place and the focus is
more on a wealth of applications. There are many reasons for this change. The merging
of computing and communications has played an important role. The enhanced ability
to observe, collect, and store data in the natural sciences, in commerce, and in other
elds calls for a change in our understanding of data and how to handle it in the modern
setting. The emergence of the web and social networks as central aspects of daily life
presents both opportunities and challenges for theory.
