Despite its relatively short history as a formal academic discipline, computer science has made a number of fundamental contributions to science and society. These include:
- Started the Digital Revolution, which led to the current Information Age and the Internet.[12]
- A formal definition of computation and computability, and proof that there are computationally unsolvable and intractable problems.[13]
- The concept of a programming language, a tool for the precise expression of methodological information at various levels of abstraction.[14]
- In cryptography, breaking the Enigma machine was an important factor contributing to the Allied victory in World War II.[11]
- Scientific computing enabled advanced study of the mind, and mapping the human genome became possible with Human Genome Project.[12] Distributed computing projects such as Folding@home explore protein folding.
- Algorithmic trading has increased the efficiency and liquidity of financial markets by using artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other statistical and numerical techniques on a large scale
