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The Conversation USA

What is an algorithm? How computers know what to do with data

  • Written by Jory Denny, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, University of Richmond
imageComputer algorithms can involve complicated math, but the concept of an algorithm is simple.Hill Street Studios/DigitalVision via Getty Images

The world of computing is full of buzzwords: AI, supercomputers, machine learning, the cloud, quantum computing and more. One word in particular is used throughout computing – algorithm.

In the most...

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