Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
December 2018
From ACM TechNews
Facial Gestures Can Move This AI-Motorized Wheelchair
A new prototype kit exploits artificial intelligence to enable a disabled person to drive a motorized wheelchair using facial expressions.
From ACM TechNews
Searching an Artificial Bee Colony for Real-World Results
Researchers in Japan have proposed a scale-free mechanism to guide an artificial bee colony algorithm's exploration process.
From ACM News
These Dusty Young Stars Are Changing the Rules of Planet-Building
Some 100,000 years ago, when Neanderthals still occupied the caves of southern Europe, a star was born.
From ACM News
Artificial Intelligence: A Roadmap for California
The Little Hoover Commission is calling for immediate action by California's governor and legislature on artificial intelligence.
From ACM News
The Friendship That Made Google Huge
From ACM News
NASA's OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Arrives at Asteroid Bennu
NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft completed its 1.2 billion-mile (2 billion-kilometer) journey to arrive at the asteroid Bennu Monday. The spacecraft…
From ACM News
All the Light There Is to See? 4 x 10⁸⁴ Photons
In one of those exercises that you think should be impossible or perhaps a punishment for some infraction, a team of astronomers has now measured the total amount of light that has ever been produced by all the stars in our universe…
From ACM News
NSF, NASA Announce Commitments to Support White House Strategic Plan on STEM Education
The National Science Foundation is expanding its diversity program to other federal agencies, and creating new graduate internship opportunities.
From ACM TechNews
AI a Focus as .S. Preps Export Controls
The U.S. Commerce Department has called for input by Dec. 19 on which of 14 emerging technologies should face export controls.
From ACM TechNews
Amazon Sets About Speeding p Space Data Processing in the Cloud With AWS Ground Stations
Amazon Web Services is creating a managed network of ground stations to boost the efficiency of processing data from orbiting space satellites and moving it to the cloud.
From ACM TechNews
Playing With Molecules in Virtual Reality
A growing number of companies are using virtual reality to enable scientists to view, design, and manipulate molecular structures.
From ACM News
The Drive Toward Self-Driving Food Delivery Vehicles
Are pizza delivery guys destined to be so 20th century?
From ACM News
The Race Is On to Protect Data From the Next Leap in Computers. And China Has the Lead.
The world's leading technology companies, from Google to Alibaba in China, are racing to build the first quantum computer, a machine that would be far more powerful than today's computers.
From ACM News
The Friendship That Made Google Huge
One day in March of 2000, six of Google's best engineers gathered in a makeshift war room.
From ACM News
Galactic Beacons Get Snuffed Out in a Cosmic Eyeblink
Stephanie LaMassa did a double take. She was staring at two images on her computer screen, both of the same object—except they looked nothing alike.
From ACM TechNews
'Chemputer' Promises App-Controlled Revolution for Drug Production
A new technique for producing drug molecules uses downloadable blueprints to easily, reliably synthesize organic chemicals via a programmable computer.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Bring Jedi Powers to Life With Force Push
A new technique method allows virtual reality users to move faraway objects and focus with an approach for remote object manipulation.
From ACM TechNews
MUHC Researchers Develop Effective HIV Self-Testing App: Study
A new app for people who want to test themselves for human immunodeficiency virus can potentially reduce the disease's spread and connect those infected with timely treatment.
From ACM TechNews
The Challenges of Predicting Mob Behavior at Political Rallies
A new model can better predict social contagions that occur at political rallies than previous methods.
From ACM TechNews
Is the Artificial Pancreas a Game Changer?
Researchers have developed software that automatically the monitors blood glucose levels of patients with Type 1 diabetes.
From ACM TechNews
AI Robot CIMON Debuts at International Space Station
The CIMON artificial intelligence robot aboard the International Space Station can engage verbally with the station's crew.
From Communications of the ACM
Learning to See
Machine learning turns the spotlight on elusive viruses.
From Communications of the ACM
Technology for the Deaf
Why aren't better assistive technologies available for those communicating using ASL?
From Communications of the ACM
AI Judges and Juries
Artificial intelligence is changing the legal industry.