Prospective students
Computing has an enormous impact on our lives. Its exceptionally fast-moving bundle of technologies gives rise to a huge variety of challenges and, day by day, changes the way we live. Studying informatics will make you part of a drive to realise the information age, as well as a professional in high demand.
Informatics is the science concerned with solutions for gathering, representing, processing and communicating information, in both man-made and natural computational systems. Informatics enables the development of new uses of computing technology, with application to areas as diverse as science, business, education, entertainment and the arts. Informatics is also concerned with the human and social dimensions of computational systems.
Informatics includes: computer science, the science of computation and computing systems; artificial intelligence, the study of the automation of intelligent behaviour; cognitive science, the scientific study of thought and intelligence; information technology, the development of systems to store, process, and retrieve information; multimedia computing, the use of digital technology to enhance the creative use of video and audio; and music informatics, the interdisciplinary application of technology to support musical creativity.
Understanding the complexity of computational systems requires knowledgeable and versatile scientists equipped with the skills needed to cope with technical as well as social challenges. To design and implement modern computing applications requires knowledge of distributed systems, networks, web services, the Internet, and the programming languages and communication protocols on which these are built. It may require a deep understanding of organizational principles and problem solving inspired by natural systems as well as an appreciation of the impact of computing technology on all our lives.