Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
December 2010
From ACM News
Joanne Luciano Joins Rensselaer's Web Science Research Group
Joanne Sylvia Luciano has joined Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Tetherless World Research Constellation. Luciano's research uses computational modeling and the World Wide Web to improve health care and advance medical discovery…
From ACM News
NASA-Funded Research Discovers Life Built With Toxic Chemical
NASA-funded astrobiology research has changed the fundamental knowledge about what comprises all known life on Earth.
From ACM News
Media in China, Arab Middle East Suppressing Wikileaks Coverage
Revelations by the organization WikiLeaks have received blanket coverage this week on television, in newspapers and on Web sites around the globe. But in parts of the world where the leaks have some of the greatest potential…
From ACM News
Hackers Take the Kinect to New Levels
But achieving the Holy Grail—controlling a computer without touching it—proves more difficult.
From ACM News
$1 Million Gift Boosts Prep Program For Future Math, Science Teachers
The University of Houston's teachHouston program, which works to combat the shortage of qualified science and math teachers in middle and high schools, has received a $1 million gift from the Powell Foundation.
From ACM News
New Psychology Theory Enables Computers To Mimic Human Creativity
A mathematical model based on the Explicit-Implicit Interaction psychology theory allows computers to mimic human creative problem-solving, and provides a new roadmap to architects of artificial intelligence.
From ACM TechNews
Microsoft Develops Shape-Shifting Touchscreen
Microsoft has filed a patent application to add real texture to a tactile touchscreen. A layer of shape-memory plastic placed above a touchscreen would distort the screen surface when different wavelengths of ultraviolet light…
From ACM News
Jaguar Helps Develop Virtual Nuclear Power Reactor
The Jaguar supercomputer at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory is paving the way toward the development of a new generation of nuclear power reactors by building what ORNL calls a virtual reactor.
From ACM TechNews
Thousands of Html5 Tests Planned By Web Consortium
Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 topped Google Chrome and Firefox in the first round of HTML5 compatibility tests, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) said that developers and vendors should not draw any conclusions about the…
From ACM News
Japan Promises High-Tech 2022 World Cup
Japan promises to dazzle fans with technology if it hosts the 2022 World Cup, allowing them to experience matches as though they are in the actual stadium, even when they are on the other side of the globe.
From ACM TechNews
China Breaks Ground on Futuristic Supercomputer Complex
China recently held a ground-breaking ceremony and released the designs for its new supercomputing center, which will be located in Changsha. The rendering consists of two buildings, one saucer-shaped and the other rectangular…
From ACM TechNews
American niversities See Decline in Foreigners Earning Science Doctorates
The number of doctorates in science and engineering granted by U.S. universities rose 1.9 percent last year, but the number of foreigners earning advanced degrees fell for the first time in more than five years.
From ACM Opinion
Assange on Secrecy, China, and Wikileaks' Growth
"Secrecy is important for many things," said WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in an interview with Time over Skype on Monday. Managing editor Richard Stengel had just asked him whether there were instances when secrecy could…
From ACM TechNews
Spaf on Security Education in 2011
Purdue University professor Eugene Spafford says that both industry and government are focusing more on the need for students to receive training in information assurance. "The awareness has increased and that is good," Spafford…
From ACM TechNews
IBM Claims Breakthrough in Laser-Based Chips
IBM recently announced a breakthrough in the development of silicon-based chips that send data using pulses of laser light. IBM says the research sets the stage for future chips that can send more than a trillion bits of data…
From ACM TechNews
A Brain Boost For Information Overload
Columbia University professors Paul Sajda and Shih-Fu Chang have developed a computer vision system that they say could revolutionize how huge amounts of visual data are processed by using a computer to increase the power of…
From ACM TechNews
FCC Chairman to Propose Plan For Net Neutrality
U.S. Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski will announce a plan Wednesday (Dec. 1) that prevents Internet service providers from favoring or discriminating against any traffic that passes through their…
From ACM TechNews
Computer-Generated Robots
Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation has developed a moving robot that is created automatically using a genetic software algorithm.
From ACM News
FCC to Vote on Net Neutrality at December 21 Meeting
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will vote on whether to adopt rules to preserve net neutrality at its December 21st open meeting, according to a tentative agenda released just after midnight on Wednesday (Dec. 1)…
From ACM News
Ibm Chips: Let There Be Light Signals
IBM has achieved a major milestone in making the dream of silicon photonics, in which computer chips send signals of light rather than electricity, into reality.
From ACM News
Your Next Wallet Is Calling
"Contactless" hardware lets phones and gadgets pay with a tap, but the coming plethora of apps that use it may confuse users.
From ACM News
Silicon-Germanium Devices Developed For Use in Space
A five-year project led by the Georgia Institute of Technology is using silicon germanium technology to develop space electronics, which could change how space vehicles and electronic systems are designed.
From ACM News
Race Is On to 'fingerprint' Phones, Pcs
David Norris wants to collect the digital equivalent of fingerprints from every computer, cellphone and TV set-top box in the world.
From Communications of the ACM
A Matter of Privacy
Do consumers have enough control over their personal information or is more government regulation needed?
From Communications of the ACM
Topic Models vs. Unstructured Data
With topic modeling, scientists can explore and understand huge collections of unlabeled information.
From Communications of the ACM
CSEdWeek Expands Its Reach
The second Computer Science Education Week is showing students, parents, and educators why computer science is important.
From Communications of the ACM
The New Face of War
With the introduction of the sophisticated Stuxnet worm, the stakes of cyberwarfare have increased immeasurably.
From Communications of the ACM
The Eyes Have It
Eye-tracking control for mobile phones might lead to a new era of context-aware user interfaces.