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Communications of the ACM

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DEPARTMENT: Editor's letter

Around the World: (The First Time) with Communications' Regional Special Sections

In 2017, we made the strategic decision to launch Communications' Regional Special Sections. Next month (April 2021), we will publish the special section for Arabia, completing our circumnavigation of the world. The special sections …
DEPARTMENT: Departments

The People vs. Tech

Today, the top seven companies in the S&P 500 index are all tech companies. Large companies wield power, and that often leads to a clash between these companies and "The People," that is, with governments.
DEPARTMENT: Career paths in computing

Enabling Renewable Energy Through Smarter Grids

We have enormous power to change the world through the systems we create. A world with clean air and water in which every person is respected seems like something we can all aspire to.
DEPARTMENT: BLOG@CACM

Disputing Dijkstra, and Birthdays in Base 2

Mark Guzdial takes issue with Dijkstra's metaphors, while Joel C. Adams considers how birthdays might differ if based on binary numbers.
COLUMN: News

The Power of Quantum Complexity

A theorem about computations that exploit quantum mechanics challenges longstanding ideas in mathematics and physics.

Fact-Finding Mission

Artificial intelligence provides automatic fact-checking and fake news detection, but with limits.

Edmund M. Clarke (1945–2020)

Edmund Melson Clarke, Jr., a celebrated American academic who developed methods for mathematically proving the correctness of computer systems, died on December 22, 2020 at the age of 75 from complications of COVID-19.

Can the Biases in Facial Recognition Be Fixed; Also, Should They?

Many facial recognition systems used by law enforcement are shot through with biases. Can anything be done to make them fair and trustworthy?
COLUMN: Legally speaking

The Push for Stricter Rules for Internet Platforms

Considering the origins, interpretations, and possible changes to Communications Decency Act §230 amid an evolving online environment.
COLUMN: Privacy

Informing California Privacy Regulations with Evidence from Research

Designing and testing 'Do Not Sell My Personal Information' icons.
COLUMN: Computing ethics

What To Do About Deepfakes

Seeking to reap the positive uses of synthetic media while minimizing or preventing negative societal impact.
COLUMN: The profession of IT

Science Is Not Another Opinion

The issue is not who has the "truth," but whose claims deserve more credence.
COLUMN: Viewpoint

50 Years of Pascal

The Pascal programming language creator Niklaus Wirth reflects on its origin, spread, and further development.

What Can the Maker Movement Teach Us About the Digitization of Creativity?

Experimenting with the creative process.

The Transformation of Patient-Clinician Relationships with AI-based Medical Advice

A "bring your own algorithm" era in healthcare.
SECTION: Practice

A Second Conversation with Werner Vogels

The Amazon CTO sits with Tom Killalea to discuss designing for evolution at scale.

Out-of-This-World Additive Manufacturing

From thingamabobs to rockets, 3D printing takes many forms.
SECTION: Contributed articles

The Decline of Computers as a General Purpose Technology

Technological and economic forces are now pushing computing away from being general purpose and toward specialization.

Educational Interventions and Female Enrollment in IT Degrees

A study of female students enrolled in IT degrees in Australia traces how programs influenced decision making.

Gender Trends in Computer Science Authorship

Under optimistic projection models, gender parity is forecast to be reached after 2100.
SECTION: Review articles

Cyber Reconnaissance Techniques

The evolution of and countermeasures for existing reconnaissance techniques.

Knowledge Graphs

Tracking the historical events that lead to the interweaving of data and knowledge.
SECTION: Research highlights

Technical Perspective: Why Don't Today's Deep Nets Overfit to Their Training Data?

"Understanding Deep Learning (Still) Requires Rethinking Generalization," Chiyuan Zhang, et al., brings a fundamental new theoretical challenge: Why don't today's deep nets overfit to training data?

Understanding Deep Learning (Still) Requires Rethinking Generalization

In this work, we presented a simple experimental framework for interrogating purported measures of generalization.

Technical Perspective: Localizing Insects Outdoors

"3D Localization for Subcentimeter-Sized Devices," by Iyer, et al., neatly separates and solves the problems of robotic locomotion, sensing, localization, and communications packaged into a tiny payload.

3D Localization for Subcentimeter-Sized Devices

We present the first localization system that consumes microwatts of power at a mobile device and can be localized across multiple rooms in settings such as homes and hospitals.
COLUMN: Last byte

Awakening

Some technical support will never change.