Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
November 2018
From ACM News
The Looming Crisis in the Internet of Things
California tries to legislate IoT security.
From ACM News
You Will Be Replaced. Here's How
Route 9 skims by Boston and cuts clear across Massachusetts to Pittsfield, a city of roughly 50,000, the largest in Berkshire County.
From ACM News
NASA’s Mars InSight Mission Lands on Red Planet's Surface
The InSight lander, NASA's latest foray to the red planet, has landed.
From ACM TechNews
Maryland Test Confirms Drones Can Safely Deliver Human Organs
University of Maryland researchers have tested organ delivery via aerial drone.
From ACM TechNews
A Smartphone, New Software Could Help Save Infants Born Preterm
Duke University researchers have developed an automated method for determining the gestational age of newborns, which could be crucial in saving the lives of premature infants.
From ACM TechNews
Catching Whisky Fakers
Researchers across Europe are applying multiple methods to combat food and beverage counterfeiting.
From ACM TechNews
Brain-Computer Interface Lets Paralyzed People Control Tablet Devices
A brain-computer interface has enabled three people suffering from tetraplegia to control a commercial tablet computer with their thoughts.
From ACM TechNews
Finally, a Machine That Can Finish Your Sentence
Google researchers have unveiled an artificial intelligence system that can complete English sentences with human-like accuracy.
From ACM TechNews
Breaking the Code: Program Trains Young Adults for Computer Industry
A program sponsored by the Resilient Coders nonprofit is training young adults of color in the Boston area to break into the computer industry.
From ACM Careers
How Cheap Labor Drives China's A.I. Ambitions
Some of the most critical work in advancing China's technology goals takes place in a former cement factory in the middle of the country's heartland, far from the aspiring Silicon Valleys of Beijing and Shenzhen.
From ACM News
China's Application of AI Should Be a Sputnik Moment for the .S. But Will It Be?
The U.S. is struggling to respond to this world-changing challenge.
From ACM News
NASA InSight Team on Course for Mars Touchdown
NASA's Mars Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) spacecraft is on track for a soft touchdown on the surface of the Red Planet on Nov. 26, the Monday after Thanksgiving.
From ACM News
Silent and Simple Ion Engine Powers a Plane with No Moving Parts
Behind a thin white veil separating his makeshift lab from joggers at a Massachusetts Institute of Technology indoor track, aerospace engineer Steven Barrett recently test-flew the first-ever airplane powered with ionic wind …
From ACM News
Beijing to Judge Every Resident Based on Behavior by End of 2020
China's plan to judge each of its 1.3 billion people based on their social behavior is moving a step closer to reality, with Beijing set to adopt a lifelong points program by 2021 that assigns personalized ratings for each resident…
From ACM News
The Microscope Revolution that's Sweeping Through Materials Science
Scientists can't study what they can't measure, as David Muller knows only too well.
From ACM TechNews
Just a Few Self-Driving Cars Stop Traffic Jams
University of California, Berkeley researchers demonstrated that a few self-driving cars can prevent traffic jams, and in some cases double the average speed of surrounding vehicles.
From ACM TechNews
AI Is Watching Employee Expenses
AppZen has developed an artificial intelligence program that can identify dubious work expense claims and educate employees about travel and expense policies.
From ACM TechNews
Research Teams se Summit Supercomputer to Win Gordon Bell Prize
Researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have jointly been awarded ACM's Gordon Bell Prize for outstanding work in computer science.
From ACM TechNews
Harvard Wants to School Congress About AI
Harvard Kennedy School's Dipayan Ghosh and former U.S. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler have launched a new AI policy initiative aimed at educating U.S. politicians and policymakers about the potential, and the risks, of artificial intelligence…
From ACM TechNews
CM, Microsoft Join Forces to Advance Edge Computing Research
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Microsoft will collaborate to further edge computing via CMU's Living Edge Laboratory, a testbed for applications that produce large datasets and require intense processing with near-instant…
From ACM News
The Snowden Legacy: What's Changed, Really?
Digital privacy has come a long way since June 2013. In the five years since documents provided by Edward Snowden became the basis for a series of revelations that tore away a veil of secrecy around broad surveillance programs…
From ACM TechNews
How AI Is Changing Wildlife Research
A software program developed by the conservation technology nonprofit Wild ME automatically identifies individual animals by their unique coat patterns or other distinguishing features.
From ACM TechNews
Amazon Launches 'Alexa-Hosted Skills' for Voice App Developers
Amazon has launched a new service aimed at Alexa developers that automatically provisions and helps them to manage a set of Amazon Web Services cloud resources for their Alexa skill's backend service.
From ACM Careers
This Company Is Helping Build China's Panopticon. It Won't Stop There
The lobby of SenseTime's Beijing office makes you feel a bit like you've stumbled into a Philip K. Dick novel.
From ACM News
Kepler Telescope Bids 'Goodnight' with Final Commands
On the evening of Thursday, Nov. 15, NASA's Kepler space telescope received its final set of commands to disconnect communications with Earth.
From ACM TechNews
Who's Behind That Beard?
Kurt Luther, working with a team at Virginia Polytechnic and State Institute, has launched Civil War Photo Sleuth, a Web platform that applies facial recognition to anonymous portraits that survived the Civil War.
From ACM TechNews
Merging Memory and Computation, Programmable Chip Speeds AI, Slashes Power se
Princeton University researchers have constructed a programmable computer chip that incorporates in-memory computing, eliminating the need for processors to retrieve data from stored memory, accelerating speed and efficiency.
…From ACM TechNews
C Language pdate Puts Backward Compatibility First
A working draft of the standard for the next C programming language revision is available for review. Most changes that have thus far been approved clarify and refine how C should behave in different implementations and in comparison…
From ACM TechNews
Robots Finally Learning to Clean the Bathroom
Researchers at the University of Koblenz-Landa in Germany developed a robotic system that was able to successfully clean at least 80% of the liquid from on and around a toilet, and remove trash from a bathroom floor.
From ACM News
Largest Overhaul of Scientific nits Since the French Revolution Wins Approval
In the biggest overhaul of the international system of units since 1875, countries have voted to redefine four basic units of measurement—the ampere, the kilogram, the kelvin and the mole.