Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
January 2020
From BLOG@CACM
Computing Continues to Dominate STEM Career Opportunities
According to the most recent (2018-28) U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, the top five STEM career opportunities are all in computing.
From insideHPC
Podcast: Optimizing Math Libraries to Prepare Applications for Exascale
In this episode of Let’s Talk Exascale, Ulrike Meier Yang of LLNL describes the xSDK4ECP and hypre projects within the Exascale Computing Project. The increased number of libraries that exascale will need presents challenges.…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Singapore Cashierless Convenience Stores
More experience with cashierless models.
Singapore's Unmanned Convenience Stores Learn from China's Failures
Nikkei Asian Review
By Dylan Loh
Unmanned stores are appealing to retailers in Singapore, where workers are in short supply…
From The Eponymous Pickle
On the Trust of AI
Over time this will change, but mere statistical statements of performance are still hard to win with. Augmented a doctor's reasoning capability is still a more powerful argument. Note the argument of 'uniqueness' of their…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Blockchain Impact on Securities
Worth following.
Understanding Blockchain Technology’s Impact on the Securities Markets
A team of legal and business researchers from Columbia has been awarded a grant to study how blockchain technology is affecting the security…
From BLOG@CACM
AI Began in 1912
Artificial intelligence began in 1912, with the world's first chess automaton built by Torres Quevedo.
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Giant Squid Video from the Gulf of Mexico
Fantastic video: Scientists had used a specialized camera system developed by Widder called the Medusa, which uses red light undetectable to deep sea creatures and has allowed scientists to discover species and observe elusive…
From BLOG@CACM
Inventing Computing Education to Meet All (Especially Teachers) Undergraduates' Needs: CUE.NEXT Workshops
The CUE.NEXT workshops aim to provide computing education for all undergraduates.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Architectures
For an exploration of cryptocurrencies and supporting blockchain architectures. Countries like Sweden and China are considering their direct implementation. See this guide to the top 50 approaches. Search this list for 'smart…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Palm Scanning Patent by Amazon
I recall we looked at this, as well as retina scans, for identification. Less perception of invasion perceived with palms, but also had some other issues. Maintaining changes would be one issue.
Amazon wants to patent technology…
From insideHPC
Job of the Week: Research Computing Specialist at Stanford University
Stanford University is seeking a Research Computing Specialist in our Job of the Week. "As a Research Computing Specialist, you will draw on both deep technical knowledge and interpersonal skills to facilitate and accelerate
…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Upside Down Reinforcement Learning
New to me, in DSC, about new ways to look at reinforcement learning, see also posts on IRL. See also other links to Inverse Reinforcement Learning. How closely are these related? Reading.
Reimagining Reinforcement Learning…
From insideHPC
Podcast: Advancing Deep Learning with Custom-Built Accelerators
In this Chip Chat podcast, Carey Kloss from Intel outlines the architecture and potential of the Intel Nervana NNP-T. He gets into major issues like memory and how the architecture was designed to avoid problems like becoming…
From insideHPC
Simulating SKA Telescope’s Massive Dataflow using the Summit Supercomputer
Researchers are using the Summit Supercomputer at ORNL to simulate the massive dataflow of the future SKA telescope. "The SKA simulation on Summit marks the first time radio astronomy data have been processed at such a large
…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Recommendation and Return Rates out of Control?
Experienced just this during the holiday buying season. Due mainly to the fact that a product recommendation was greatly overstated on Amazon, discovered later by a closer look at reviews, which led to what looked like a very…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Foresight Institute AGI Strategy Meeting
Was reminded of the Forsight Institute, which we actively followed regarding nano tech developments since the 90s. Just got there yearly update, of interest. More details at the link,reviewing now:
We're excited to share the…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Baidu and GLUE
China and langage meaning.
Baidu has a new trick for teaching AI the meaning of language in 7Wdata
Earlier this month, a Chinese tech giant quietly dethroned Microsoft and Google in an ongoing competition in AI. The company was…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Assistant Telling Stories in the Classroom
Other examples of this out there? I would rather have kids reading for themselves. The basics still mean something.
Alexa in the classroom? Amazon’s voice assistant leads kids’ story time By Matt Day
The group of kids, aged…
From Schneier on Security
Chrome Extension Stealing Cryptocurrency Keys and Passwords
A malicious Chrome extension surreptitiously steals Ethereum keys and passwords: According to Denley, the extension is dangerous to users in two ways. First, any funds (ETH coins and ERC0-based tokens) managed directly inside…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Generalized Smart Contracts with IOTA
Have now examined the potential and depth for 'smart contracts' for several blockchain applications. Here one example:
Smart Contracts and IOTA
Markus in Medium
The topic of smart contracts is a very important one for future business…
From The Eponymous Pickle
IBM Says AI in Business Exploding
Some statements by IBM on use of AI type analytic methods on business.
AI in business exploding, IBM says
'We are getting into the middle innings where companies are starting to get real outcomes from AI' The adoption of artificial…
From Schneier on Security
Mysterious Drones are Flying over Colorado
No one knows who they belong to. (Well, of course someone knows. And my guess is that it's likely that we will know soon.)...
From insideHPC
Single-Cell Sequencing for Drug Discovery: Applications and Challenges
Sarah Middleton from GSK gave this talk at DOE CSGF 2019. "Advances in techniques for single-cell RNA sequencing have made it possible to profile gene expression in individual cells on a large scale, opening up the possibility…
From The Eponymous Pickle
New Scaling Approach for Deep Learning
Fast and effective training is important, especially for many IOT and edge devices. So a potential advance here.
Deep Learning breakthrough made by Rice University scientists
Rice University's MACH training system scales further…
From insideHPC
Donald Knuth on Algorithms, Complexity, and The Art of Computer Programming
In this Artificial Intelligence podcast with Lex Fridman, computer scientist Donald Knuth discusses Alan Turing, Neural networks, machine learning and other AI topics from ant colonies and human cognition.
The post Donald Knuth…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
A Brief Career Memoir
Blame Mike Zamansky for this one. In my last post I mentioned that I am planning on retiring from the classroom this spring. Mike wondered how my perspectives have changed over the years and through different aspects of my career…
From The Eponymous Pickle
GE Smart Switch Makes a Move
As the article suggests, have seen little from GE oriented toward smart home applications.
GE's wireless smart switch works without a hub in Engadget
No messing around with wiring.
It's been a while since we heard from GE about
…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Whats Blockchain Good For?
Readable piece that covers positives and negative cautions. Which gets to some reasonable rules of useful application. In PDF form.
Blockchain Technology: What Is It Good for? in Queue ACM.
Industry's dreams and fears for…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Andreessen Top 10 Podcasts of the Year
Andreessen Horowitz
Our Top 10 Podcasts of 2019
by a16z Editorial
It’s that time of year again, where we share some of our most popular podcasts of the year. This is the year we also launched a NEW show, 16 Minutes — where we cover…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Unlocking Data for Public Policy
Improved governmental data access for policy and regulation decisions.
Unlocking Data to Improve Public Policy
By Justine S. Hastings, Mark Howison, Ted Lawless, John Ucles, Preston White
Communications of the ACM, October 2019,…