Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
January 2016
From ACM News
Marvin Minsky, Pioneer in Artificial Intelligence, Dies at 88
Marvin Minsky, who combined a scientist's thirst for knowledge with a philosopher's quest for truth as a pioneering explorer of artificial intelligence, work that helped inspire the creation of the personal computer and the Internet…
From ACM TechNews
Msu Computer Simulations May Help States Predict Flooding
Researchers are performing supercomputer simulations in an attempt to determine how much water levee systems can withstand before breaking, leading to flooding.
From ACM TechNews
Smart Clothes Adapt So You Are Always the Right Temperature
The U.S. Department of Energy is funding research into clothing that can change its thermal properties to adapt to the environment, as well as to the body of the wearer.
From ACM TechNews
Defending Your Computer From Cyberattacks, Sun Tzu Style
Deception has been used to thwart cyberattacks before, mostly in "honeypot" strategies, but what sets a new operating system apart is inconsistent deception.
From ACM News
Models of Pedestrian Flow Stumble Because People Change Their Minds
The flow of pedestrians is a critical part of the design of buildings, stadiums, and much more.
From ACM TechNews
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Sensing From Mobile Devices May Help Improve Bus Service
University of Washington researchers say they have developed a low-cost way to harness useful data from bus passengers' mobile device Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signals.
From ACM Careers
The Strange Rituals of Silicon Valley Intern Recruiting
The Wozniak Lounge, located on the northern side of campus at the University of California, Berkeley, looks like it was decorated by engineers, to the extent that one could say it’s decorated at all.
From ACM TechNews
After 2,500 Years, a Chinese Gaming Mystery Is Solved
Computer scientist John Tromp has discovered the total number of legal positions on Go's standard 19x19 board.
From ACM TechNews
$28m Challenge to Figure Out Why Brains Are So Good at Learning
The U.S. Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity has invested more than $28 million in grants toward the development of advanced machine-learning algorithms.
From ACM News
Europe's Top Digital-Privacy Watchdog Zeros In on .s. Tech Giants
The latest standoff between Europe and American tech companies runs through a quiet street just north of the Louvre Museum, past chic cafes and part of the French national library, to the ornate office of Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin…
From ACM TechNews
Self-Stacking Nanogrids Could Lead to Tinier Chips
Researchers have developed a new technique for using block copolymers and mesh structures to find new ways to build processors for memory and optical chips.
From ACM TechNews
Biodegradable Bodies For More Eco-Friendly Robots
Scientists in Italy are developing "smart materials" that will enable robots to biodegrade like a human body once they have reached the end of their life span.
From ACM TechNews
Penn Profs Work to Build Bug-Free Computer Programs
The Science of Deep Specification project is aimed at helping developers build bug-free programs.
From ACM News
NASA Mars Rover Curiosity Tastes Scooped, Sieved Sand
At its current location for inspecting an active sand dune, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is adding some sample-processing moves not previously used on Mars.
From ACM Careers
Why Doesn't Silicon Valley Hire Black Coders?
In the fall of 2013 a young software engineer named Charles Pratt arrived on Howard University's campus in Washington.
From ACM Careers
Larry Page, Google Founder, Is Still Innovator in Chief
Three years ago, Charles Chase, an engineer who manages Lockheed Martin's nuclear fusion program, was sitting on a white leather couch at Google's Solve for X conference when a man he had never met knelt down to talk to him.
From ACM TechNews
British Voice Encryption Protocol Has Massive Weakness, Researcher Says
A researcher charges the protocol created by a U.K. governmental group to encrypt voice calls has a weakness built into it by design that could enable mass surveillance.
From ACM TechNews
How an AI Algorithm Learned to Write Political Speeches
Researchers have developed an artificial intelligence machine that learned how to write political speeches that are very similar to real speeches.
From ACM TechNews
Japan Road Tests Self-Driving Cars to Keep Aging Motorists Mobile
Japan's automakers aim to meet the challenge of aging drivers with few transportation options by testing self-driving vehicles on roads.
From ACM TechNews
.s. Military Wants to Create Cyborg Soldiers
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is working to create a chip to implant in a soldier's brain to connect it directly to computers.
From ACM TechNews
This Smartphone Technology 3d Maps Your Meal and Counts Its Calories
NutriRay3D is a new laser-mapping technology/smartphone app that lets users point a smartphone at food and get an accurate count of its total calories and nutrition.
From ACM News
Crispr Goes Commercial
Within just three years since the discovery of its gene-editing potential, the new technique Crispr has become the hottest, and most controversial, development in genomics research. And now it's more than just a science—it's…
From ACM News
Here Come the Robots: Davos Bosses Brace For Big Technology Shocks
Implantable mobile phones. 3D-printed organs for transplant. Clothes and reading-glasses connected to the Internet.
From ACM News
Football Coaches Are Turning to AI For Help Calling Plays
In 1996, IBM'S Deep Blue became the first supercomputer to defeat a chess grandmaster, Garry Kasparov, in a game.
From ACM News
Can Augmented Reality Make Remote Communication Feel More Intimate?
Nothing beats talking to another person face-to-face, but a group of researchers are considering whether a life-size projection of a person that appears to be sitting across from you in an actual chair might be a close second…
From ACM News
Message on a Bottle: A Personalized Information Technology
A spirits company equips its bottles with customizable LED message bands.
From ACM TechNews
Switchable Material Could Enable New Memory Chips
Researchers report they can control the phase and electrical properties of a thin-film material by applying a small voltage.
From ACM TechNews
Intelligent Electronics to Become Durable, Flexible and Functional Through New Technology
The VTT Technical Research Center of Finland developed the roll-to-roll overmolding manufacturing process now being used by the Printed Into Products 2 project.
From ACM TechNews
Machine Learning Helps Discover the Most Luminous Supernova in History
Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers developed machine-learning technology that played a key role in the discovery of supernova ASASSN-15lh.
From ACM TechNews
German niversity Reports Severe Software Vulnerabilities p in 2015
Fewer software security vulnerabilities were reported worldwide in 2015 than in 2014, but the number of published vulnerabilities with a high level of severity has increased.