Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
February 2015
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Design New App to Help Elderly Patients Reduce Medication Mistakes
Researchers in Spain have developed Alicia, an application to assist elderly patients with administering their own medications at home.
From ACM TechNews
Meet Poppy, the Printable Robot
European researchers have developed an open source, 3D-printed, humanoid robot.
From ACM TechNews
How Elementary School Teachers' Biases Can Discourage Girls From Math and Science
A new study suggests the biases of elementary school teachers have a profound effect on whether or not girls pursue studies in math and science.
From ACM TechNews
DARPA Is Developing a Search Engine For the Dark Web
Memex is a search engine under development that is being designed to access the Dark Web to help law enforcement track illegal activity.
From ACM News
Not in Front of the Telly: Warning Over 'listening' Tv
Samsung is warning customers about discussing personal information in front of their smart television set.
From ACM TechNews
Facebook, Linkedin Join to Help Women in Tech
Facebook and LinkedIn have launched a collaborative initiative to boost the shrinking numbers of women studying engineering and computer science.
From ACM News
DARPA Is Developing a Search Engine For the Dark Web
A new search engine being developed by Darpa aims to shine a light on the dark web and uncover patterns and relationships in online data to help law enforcement and others track illegal activity.
From ACM News
What Watson Has Been Up To Since “jeopardy!”
Remember Watson, the computer that won "Jeopardy!" in 2011 and made us all worry about the impending obsolescence of the human race?
From ACM Opinion
Our Fear of Artificial Intelligence
Years ago I had coffee with a friend who ran a startup.
From ACM News
Nsa Acknowledges What We All Feared: Iran Learns From Us Cyberattacks
After the Stuxnet digital weapon was discovered on machines in Iran in 2010, many security researchers warned that US adversaries would learn from this and other US attacks and develop similar techniques to target America and…
From ACM News
Nasa Spacecraft Completes 40,000 Mars Orbits
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter passed a mission milestone of 40,000 orbits on Feb. 7, 2015, in its ninth year of returning information about the atmosphere, surface and subsurface of Mars, from equatorial to polar latitudes…
From ACM Careers
Washington Lawmakers Want Computer Science to Count as Foreign Language
Two Washington state legislators have recently introduced a bill that would allow computer science class (e.g., programming) to effectively count as a foreign language requirement for the purposes of in-state college admissions…
From ACM TechNews
Over-the-Air Software Coming Soon to Your Next Car
Car manufacturers soon hope to upgrade vehicles' software over-the-air, which they say will enhance customer satisfaction, boost safety, and curb costs.
From ACM TechNews
The Facebook Page That Posts the Same Picture Every Day
The Facebook page "the same photo of Toto Cutugno every day" has caught the attention of fans of the Italian singer, as well as researchers.
From ACM TechNews
Stanford-Designed Hapkit Brings Physical Touch to the Virtual Classroom
Stanford University researchers have developed Hapkit, a do-it-yourself kit that gives online learners hands-on experience by bringing haptics into virtual classrooms.
From ACM Opinion
J. Craig Venter on Dna and Life's Mysteries
J. Craig Venter is in the life business.
From ACM News
Software Engineers with Autism Add Value to the Corporate Workplace
Companies are training workers with autism spectrum disorders for software testing, quality assurance
From ACM News
The Attention Machine
Human attention isn't stable, ever, and it costs us: lives lost when drivers space out, billions of dollars wasted on inefficient work, and mental disorders that hijack focus.
From ACM News
Human Traffickers Caught on Hidden Internet
In November 2012 a 28-year-old woman plunged 15 meters from a bedroom window to the pavement in New York City, a devastating fall that left her body broken but alive.
From ACM News
Look Into My Eyes: Tracking Your Gaze Could Be the Next Big Gaming Input
The bulk of the press release announcing a March 10 release for the PC port of Assassin's Creed Rogue is strictly boilerplate.
From ACM TechNews
Looking nder the Bitcoin Bonnet: Students Aim to Enhance Transparency
Trinity College Dublin researchers are studying Bitcoin in an effort to make the cryptocurrency more transparent and reduce the risk of fraud.
From ACM TechNews
Monkey Mustaches and Beards Help Algorithm Recognize Faces
New York University researchers have developed an algorithm that can correctly identify colorful monkeys called guenons by their faces.
From ACM TechNews
Society's View of It Workers As 'unwashed Nerds' Stops Women Entering Industry
Society needs to change the way it presents and views information technology careers if more women are to be encouraged to join the industry.
From ACM TechNews
Engineering Students Make History With Firefighting Humanoid Robot
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University students and the U.S. Navy recently unveiled a fire-fighting humanoid robot.
From ACM News
Senator: Your Futuristic Car Is Putting Your Privacy and Security At Risk
Cars these days have more in common with smart phones than the Model-T. But a new reportfrom Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) warns that the increasing technical complexity of vehicles is leaving drivers' security and privacy at risk…
From ACM TechNews
mass Medical School, Wpi Developing Smartphone App to Address Stress Eating
Researchers are developing a stress-eating smartphone app to help users better understand why they overeat.
From ACM TechNews
No, the Robots Are Not Going to Rise Up and Kill You
IBM researcher David Buchanan says worries about artificial intelligence surpassing humans in more existential ways are overblown.
From ACM News
Autonomous Vehicles: No Drivers Required
This summer, people will cruise through the streets of Greenwich, U.K., in electric shuttles with no one's hands on the steering wheel—or any steering wheel at all.
From ACM News
NASA's Curiosity Analyzing Sample of Martian Mountain
The second bite of a Martian mountain taken by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover hints at long-ago effects of water that was more acidic than any evidenced in the rover's first taste of Mount Sharp, a layered rock record of ancient…
From ACM News
Networks Reveal the Connections of Disease
Stefan Thurner is a physicist, not a biologist. But not long ago, the Austrian national health insurance clearinghouse asked Thurner and his colleagues at the Medical University of Vienna to examine some data for them.