Is Computing an Experimental Science?

We are beginning an ambitious programme of research into the Foundations of Computer Science. This isn’t to say that we are beginning to study the theory of computation; this has been going on fruitfully for many years. Nevertheless the particular programme which we have put forward is a new kind of exercise. What makes it new is a central commitment to a double thesis: that the design of computing systems can only properly succeed if it is well grounded in theory, and that the important concepts in a theory can only emerge through protracted exposure to application.