What is Computer Science?

"Every other science deals with the universe as it is.  The physicist's job, for example, is to understand how the world works, not to invent a world in which physical laws would be simpler or more pleasant to follow. Computer scientists, on the other hand, must create abstraction of real-world problems that can be represented and manipulated inside a computer" - Alfred Aho and Jeffrey Ullman

One of the biggest issues with trying to grow Computer Science is helping people understand what Computer Science is. However most Computer Scientists would struggle to define Computer Science. Edsger Diijstra said "Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes". So then what is it? Here is a collection of ways to explain what Computer Science is. In addition I list a bunch of other subjects Computer Science is often confused with in order to help clarify the difference.

Computer science is the "study of computers, their design, and their uses for computation, data processing, and systems control, including design and development of computer hardware and software, and programming. The field encompasses theory, mathematical activities such as design and analysis of algorithms, performance studies of systems and their components, and estimation of reliability and availability of systems by probabilistic techniques. Because computer systems are often too large and complicated for failure and success of a design to be predicted without testing, experimentation is built into the development cycle." - Webster Dictionary 

"Computer science refers to the study of computer and algorithmic processes, including their principles, their hardware and software designs, their applications, and their impact on society." - Running on Empty Report

Computer science is "efficiently implementing automated abstractions".  Its about "building clean abstract models of messy real-world objects and phenomena" then putting them into action as algorithms and computer language. In the end the solution should run quickly and use minimal resources. - Phillip Guo

OTHER HELPFUL DEFINITIONS:

Technology Literacy and Fluency: "A spectrum of curricula ranging from literacy (understanding how to use technology), to fluency (the ability to express ideas creatively, reformulate knowledge, and synthesize new information and technology)." - CSTA Running on Empty

Information Technology: "A broad and diverse set of topics, but typically focused on applying the components of information technology to solve a business information problem, such as network or database administration." - CSTA Running on Empty