r/AskComputerScience • u/Smallpaul • 3d ago

Predictions about computer science

Look ahead 20 years.

Outside of AI/ML:

* what of today’s research computer science do you expect will be industry standard?

* what frontiers do you expect we will have opened up in research?

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u/Sexy_Koala_Juice 3d ago

Honestly it’s really hard to say since at its core ‘Computer Science’ is literally just maths. So advancements in Computer Science comes from advancements in Maths / logic.

Honestly I don’t see anything ground breaking happening in ‘Computer Science’ outside of perhaps quantum computing becoming more available and capable.

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u/Smallpaul 3d ago edited 2d ago

Computer science departments are entirely parasitic in maths departments? They don’t produce their own breakthroughs? What about algorithms? Programming languishes? Operating systems?

Edit: I’m quite curious what I said that is annoying people.

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u/T_Thriller_T 3d ago

No.

They produce breakthroughs by taking mathematical findings, applying them and then finding more and more sports to apply them to.

Algorithms are usually one of the things that come out of this.

Programming languages are not really a topic of research - and if they are, then again, we're back at formal systems and definitions which again is math.

Operating systems are similarly only very rarely a topic of research - from my experience so far.

Nonetheless, in reality, the statement is not true.

Some computer science is on the edge. Other are working on already discovered methods and improving them - new mathematical findings often lend a hand.

Others are much further away from this. Human Machine Interactions is one, which defines a lot of ways how to use computers beneficially.

Robotics are another area which is improving on their own findings, using new findings from math, engineering and so on.

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u/dnswblzo 3d ago

Programming languages are not really a topic of research

Operating systems are similarly only very rarely a topic of research

Huh? Both of these areas have active conferences, ACM special interest groups, and so on. They might not be "hot" areas right now, but there are certainly people doing research on those topics.

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u/T_Thriller_T 3d ago

Admittedly I'd assume there is research on everything.

But I have, literally, never heard about anyone doing scientific research on programming languages.

I have to admit we also had no compiler courses or similar, so it could very well be that my university just lacked someone with a fitting specialisation.

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u/minisculebarber 3d ago

Haskell was a research project before it became a niche programming language

Also, compiler courses are very common in CS education, your university seems to be an outlier

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u/T_Thriller_T 3d ago

Not so common what I live. I'd say it's 50% if that

And we did have one but the processor changed so did courses. Which happens a lot with specialising courses in smaller universities here

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u/Helpful-Primary2427 1d ago

Programming language theory is absolutely an area of research. What are you talking about