Informatics is the study of the structure, behaviour, and interactions
of natural and engineered computational systems.
Informatics studies the representation, processing, and communication of
information in natural and engineered systems. It has computational, cognitive
and social aspects. The central notion is the transformation of information -
whether by computation or communication, whether by organisms or artifacts.
Understanding informational phenomena - such as computation, cognition, and
communication - enables technological advances. In turn, technological progress
prompts scientific enquiry. The science of information and the engineering of
information systems develop hand-in-hand. Informatics is the emerging discipline
that combines the two.
In natural and artificial systems, information is carried at many levels, ranging, for
example, from biological molecules and electronic devices through nervous
systems and computers and on to societies and large-scale distributed systems.
It is characteristic that information carried at higher levels is represented by
informational processes at lower levels. Each of these levels is the proper object
of study for some discipline of science or engineering. Informatics aims to
develop and apply firm theoretical and mathematical foundations for the features
that are common to all computational systems.