Computer Science, or Informatics as it is often called in Europe, is viewed by many as being both a science and a technology. Clearly, its technological aspects are very much upon us on a day to day basis. Yet all other exact sciences such as physics, biology or chemistry are also very present in ourdaily lives through the technologies they generate, and yet we do not doubt that they have scientific foundations.
In some ways, Informatics is akin to a mathematical science, since formalisation, definition and deduction play an important role in the development of its concepts and in the embodiment of the concepts into artifacts. Informatics is also very similar to physics and engineering science, where models have to be linked to observation and measurement. Current research on computer networks and computer systems is an illustration of this second approach.
Some of the confusion about Informatics as a Science and as a Technology may arise from the fact that most of its pioneering contributors, many of whom are fortunately still alive, have actively contributed (and still do) to both the scientific principles, often based on mathematics, and to its technological and practical developments.
The links between computer arithmetic, which is based on algebra and algorithms, and digital circuit design are one example. The connection between mathematical models of queueing networks, which were originally inspired by telecommunications, computer systems and computer networks, and the commercial software tools that are used to analyse the performance of computer systems, and which incorporate these mathematical models, are another example. Yet another instance of this connection lies in the use of formal methods for the verification and testing of programs and software systems, which have enjoyed a long standing interaction with mathematical logic.