Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
November 2017
From ACM TechNews
Supercomputing Speeds Up Deep Learning Training
A team led by Texas Advanced Computing Center researchers has published the results of an effort to use supercomputers to train a deep neural network for rapid image recognition.
From ACM TechNews
The Field of AI Research Is About to Get Way Bigger Than Code
The new AI Now Institute is a cross-disciplinary initiative that will research the impact of artificial intelligence on society.
From ACM TechNews
Improving Clinical Trials With Machine Learning
Machine learning could improve the ability to determine whether a new drug works in the brain, and could enable researchers to detect drug effects missed by conventional statistics tests.
From ACM News
The Power of AI in the Sky
Researchers are using artificial intelligence to sift massive amounts of big data in support of astronomy projects.
From ACM TechNews
Defining a New Model For Cybersecurity Trust With Blockchain
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's David Shrier recently detailed the MIT Trust::Data Consortium's efforts to build new systems that rethink data sharing and security.
From ACM TechNews
Google Study Finds Phishing Is Top Online Threat
Internet data breaches threaten the usernames and passwords of billions of people, and phishing attacks are the most effective way to hijack victims' online identities.
From ACM TechNews
CM Software Assembles Rna Transcripts More Accurately
Scallop is a new, more accurate computational method for reconstructing full-length nucleotide sequences of the RNA products in cells.
From ACM TechNews
Inside the Mechanical Brain of the World's First Robot Citizen
Hanson Robotics' humanoid robot, Sophia, is defined by creator Ben Goertzel as more of a user interface than a conscious artificial intelligence.
From ACM TechNews
How to Survive a Robot Apocalypse: Just Close the Door
In a competition, robots were unable to overcome the challenge of an unlocked door impeding their way at an outdoor obstacle course, illustrating the technology's shortcomings.
From ACM TechNews
New Tool Quantifies Power Imbalance Between Female and Male Characters in Hollywood Movie Scripts
Researchers using machine-learning technology to analyze about 800 movie scripts found widespread gender bias in the portrayal of male and female characters.
From ACM TechNews
Cellphone Data Reveals Hurricane Maria's Impact on Travel in Puerto Rico
Researchers have detailed when people chose to move out of a hurricane's path and how much travel was hindered by winds and flooding following Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.
From ACM TechNews
Fruit Fly Brains Inform Search Engines of the Future
The mechanism the fruit fly brain employs to identify olfactory similarities could inform the design of future search algorithms.
From ACM TechNews
New Quantum Materials Offer Novel Route to 3D Electronic Devices
Researchers at Aalto University in Finland have demonstrated how the principles of general relativity can open a pathway to novel electronic applications.
From ACM TechNews
Father of the Web Confronts His Creation in the Era of Fake News
World Wide Web Consortium founder (and 2016 A.M. Turing Award recipient) Sir Tim Berners-Lee discusses how his perspective of the Web has changed since its inception.
From ACM TechNews
Tune Out Background Noise With Msu's New Technology
Researchers are developing hearing aid technology that would eliminate background noise heard through conventional hearing aid devices.
From ACM TechNews
Co-Design Center Develops Next-Gen Simulation Tools
The Exascale Computing Project's Center for Efficient Exascale Discretizations collaborates to create highly optimized discretization libraries and next-generation mini applications.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Study Human Movement to Build Better Robots
Researchers at Northeastern University are studying how people and robots move independently and in tandem.
From ACM News
The Perfect Dose
Researchers close in on a 24/7 drug delivery system.
From ACM TechNews
Researcher Seeks to Tame 'ghost' of ncertainty in Complex Dynamic Systems
University of Kansas professor Huazhen Fang is leading research to address "unstructured uncertainty" in the quest to develop accurate predictive mathematical equations.
From ACM TechNews
Why They Dox: First Large-Scale Study Reveals Top Motivations and Targets For This Form of Cyber Bullying
Researchers say they have published the first large-scale study of doxing.
From ACM TechNews
Machine Learning and Deep Learning Programs Provide a Helping Hand to Scientists Analyzing Images
Researchers are using machine learning and deep learning to better identify how neutrinos interact with normal matter.
From ACM TechNews
IBM Raises the Bar With 50-Qubit Quantum Computer
IBM last week announced a 50-quantum bit quantum computer, as well as the availability of a 20-qubit system via its cloud computing platform.
From ACM TechNews
Training For Artificial Intelligence in Warfare
Governments are taking a closer look at artificial intelligence as a way to further their strategic interests in areas such as national defense.
From ACM TechNews
Walk This Way: A Better Way to Identify Gait Differences
Researchers re developing new input/output architectures for convolutional neural network-based cross-view gait recognition by utilizing a Siamese network for verification.
From ACM News
Only If It Serves the State: North Korea's Online Experience
Ever so cautiously, North Korea is going online.
From ACM News
Dawn Explores Ceres' Interior Evolution
Surface features on Ceres—the largest world between Mars and Jupiter—and its interior evolution have a closer relationship than one might think.
From ACM TechNews
Cosmos Code Helps Probe Space Oddities
The Cosmos computer code is driving supercomputer models of black hole jets and is used to investigate other unusual space phenomena.
From ACM TechNews
Highly Flexible Organic Flash Memory For Foldable and Disposable Electronics
A new ultra-flexible organic flash memory can be applied to non-conventional substrates, such as plastics and papers.
From ACM TechNews
Facebook Can Make Your Profile Pic Wink and Scowl
Researchers have been developing a tool that can take a single image of a face and create an animated version that puts on either a happy, sad, or angry expression.
From ACM TechNews
A Robotic Spy Among the Fish
Researchers have developed a miniature robot that can integrate perfectly into schools of zebrafish.