Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
October 2015
From ACM TechNews
Black Engineers Join Forces to Boost Diversity
Software engineer Makinde Adeagbo officially launched the /dev/color nonprofit last week to address the scarcity of African-Americans in the technology industry.
From ACM TechNews
Robots and US
The dream of full automation is outdated and does not lead to the best outcomes, according to Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor David Mindell.
From ACM TechNews
An Algorithm Might Save Your Life: How the Amazon and Netflix Method Might Someday Cure Cancer
Machine-learning algorithms underlying Amazon and Netflix recommendation engines might one day have a transformative effect on humanity.
From ACM News
Cops Don't Need a Crypto Backdoor to Get Into Your Iphone
Late last week, the privacy community scored a victory in a year-long battle over the future of encryption: In internal discussions, the White House quietly overruled law enforcement and intelligence officials, deciding that…
From ACM TechNews
How Perfect Is Too Perfect? Research Reveals Robot Flaws Are Key to Interacting With Humans
University of Lincoln researchers have found humans have more successful interactions with robots when they exhibit some of the same foibles as humans.
From ACM News
How Soviets sed IBM Selectric Keyloggers to Spy on S Diplomats
A National Security Agency memo that recently resurfaced a few years after it was first published contains a detailed analysis of what very possibly was the world's first keylogger—a 1970s bug that Soviet spies implanted in US…
From ACM News
Brain Scans Pinpoint Individuals from a Crowd
Our brains are wired in such distinctive ways that an individual can be identified on the basis of brain-scan images alone, neuroscientists report.
From ACM News
With Court Order, Federal Judge Seeks to Fuel Debate About Data Encryption
A federal judge in New York is seeking to expand to the courts the hot debate over whether tech companies should be forced to find ways to unlock encrypted smartphones and other devices for law enforcement.
From ACM TechNews
Nsf Awards $74.5 Million to Support Interdisciplinary Cybersecurity Research
The U.S. National Science Foundation has awarded $74.5 million in research grants through its Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace program.
From ACM News
Fragment of Rat Brain Simulated in Supercomputer
A controversial European neuroscience project that aims to simulate the human brain in a supercomputer has published its first major result: a digital imitation of circuitry in a sandgrain-sized chunk of rat brain.
From ACM TechNews
Bioinspired Robotic Finger Advances Prosthetics Technology
Florida Atlantic University researchers have developed a robotic finger.
From ACM TechNews
Magnetic Skyrmions at Room Temperature: New Digital Memory?
Researchers at the University of California, Davis and the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology have made magnetic skyrmions at room temperature.
From ACM News
Artificial Precognition ses Data to See the Future
Using large data sets and machine learning to recognize unseen patterns.
From ACM News
Inside China's Plan to Give Every Citizen a Character Score
Where you go, what you buy, who you know, how many points are on your driving licence, how your pupils rate you.
From ACM News
Microsoft Researchers Are Working on Multi-Person Virtual Reality
Augmented or mixed reality, which renders virtual images in a view of the real world, can be spectacular to experience. But it may be even more fun when you bring a friend.
From ACM News
Behind the European Privacy Ruling That's Confounding Silicon Valley
On Tuesday, when Max Schrems won a landmark privacy case in the European Court of Justice, Edward Snowden told him on Twitter that he had "changed the world for the better."
From ACM News
Nasa's Curiosity Rover Team Confirms Ancient Lakes on Mars
A new study from the team behind NASA's Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity has confirmed that Mars was once, billions of years ago, capable of storing water in lakes over an extended period of time.
From ACM TechNews
Ford Uses Space Robot Communications to Serve Connected Cars
Researchers have used telematics technology, used in developing space-robot communications, to develop a data communications system for connected vehicles.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Say They've Recreated Part of a Rat Brain Digitally
Researchers from institutions around the world disclosed on Thursday the successful digital reconstruction of a section of a rat brain.
From ACM TechNews
For the Real Hits of Fashion Week, Look to Computer Science
Researchers from Taiwan and the University of Rochester have developed algorithms that enable a computer to identify fashion trends.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Build Extra Brainy Smart Homes to Monitor Aging Adults
Washington State University's Center for Advanced Studies in Adaptive Systems develops smart home technology to help older people live with greater independence.
From ACM TechNews
Frogs Resolve Computing Issues
Researchers have used the Japanese tree frog's mating rituals to develop new computational algorithms.
From ACM TechNews
A Stanford Professor's Quest to Fix Driverless Cars' Major Flaw
Stanford University professor Chris Gerdes is exploring the issue of programming the computer systems of automated cars with ethical decision-making.
From ACM News
A Shocking Way to Fix the Brain
When Emad Eskandar talks about one of his neurosurgery patients with obsessive compulsive disorder, he's not talking about someone who arranges his record collection by color, size, and name.
From ACM News
Smaller U.s. Businesses Fear Freeze from Eu Privacy Ruling
U.S. businesses from online coupon company RetailMeNot Inc to security software company Symantec Corp said a European change to rules governing transatlantic personal data transfers would hurt U.S. companies and called for a…
From ACM News
New Horizons Finds Blue Skies and Water Ice on Pluto
The first color images of Pluto's atmospheric hazes, returned by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft last week, reveal that the hazes are blue.
From ACM News
Researchers Say They've Recreated Part of a Rat Brain Digitally
Building on years of research, 82 researchers from institutions around the world reported on Thursday that they have built a reconstruction of a section of rat brain in a computer.
From ACM TechNews
Chapman University Researches Way to Mathematically Make Something Go Viral on Facebook
One person in a social cluster on Facebook can spread information to others just as effectively as an opinion leader, according to researchers at Chapman University.
From ACM TechNews
AI 'Just an Ordinary Part of Our Lives,' Already Optimizing Business Operations, Says Researcher
Artificial intelligence is already making its way into practical industrial and commercial systems, observes a Carnegie Mellon University researcher.
From ACM TechNews
Why Hasn't He/she Replied Yet?
Researchers at the University of Southern California and Yahoo! Labs found email responses depend on a variety of factors, including age, platform, volume, and timing.