Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
February 2016
From ACM News
Your Next New Best Friend Might Be a Robot
Meet Xiaoice. She’s empathic, caring, and always available—just not human.
From ACM News
Will AI-Powered Hedge Funds Outsmart the Market?
Every day computers make many millions of electronic trades by performing delicate calculations aimed at eking out a tiny edge in terms of speed or efficiency.
From ACM News
Meet the Soft, Cuddly Robots of the Future
In 2007, Cecilia Laschi asked her father to catch a live octopus for her seaside lab in Livorno, Italy.
From ACM News
The Massive New Privacy Deal Between U.s. and Europe, Explained
U.S. and European regulators have agreed to a tentative deal, officials say, that would allow thousands of U.S. companies to continue moving the personal information of ordinary Europeans across the Atlantic.
From ACM TechNews
This Robot Changes How It Looks at You to Match Your Personality
Sean Andrist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has developed algorithms to help robots look at people at the right times and in the right ways.
From ACM TechNews
Machine Learning, Social Media Data Help Spot Flooded Areas
Researchers analyzed 2013 flooding in Colorado and found 150,000 tweets from people affected by the disaster.
From ACM TechNews
Planning For a Disease Outbreak? There's a Game For That.
Researchers are developing new software that can predict, simulate, and analyze a major disease outbreak in the form of an intuitive, multiplayer game.
From ACM TechNews
A Virtual 'guide Dog' For Navigation
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have modified an algorithm for processing three-dimensional camera data, with power conservation in mind.
From ACM News
Apps in Your Browser
Google has started hosting mobile apps and incorporating them into search results.
From ACM News
Saturn's Rings: Less Than Meets the Eye?
It seems intuitive that an opaque material should contain more stuff than a more translucent substance.
From ACM News
How Do Americans Weigh Privacy Versus National Security?
Three years ago, Edward Snowden leaked troves of previously classified information that laid bare the American government's widespread surveillance of its citizens.
From ACM News
If You Go Near the Super Bowl, You Will Be Surveilled Hard
Super Bowl 50 will be big in every way.
From ACM TechNews
Cynthia Breazeal's Robotic Quest
Cynthia Breazeal has committed herself to the development of socially intelligent robots.
From ACM TechNews
How to Make Your Own Nsa Bulk Surveillance System
A network surveillance and security issues expert built a miniature bulk surveillance system like the one used by the U.S. National Security Agency.
From ACM TechNews
With STEM Degrees, It's Not the School That Matters
The prestige of a school offering science, technology, engineering, or math degrees may have little impact on how much its graduates earn.
From ACM TechNews
Energy-Friendly Chip Can Perform Powerful Artificial-Intelligence Tasks
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers this week introduced a new chip that implements neural networks.
From ACM TechNews
5 Futuristic Oddities From the Weird World of Wearable Tech
Concepts of human-machine interaction are undergoing a transformation thanks to advances in wearable technology.
From ACM TechNews
Making Our Digital World Safer From Cyberattacks
Researchers are working to help ensure cybersecurity develops in conjunction with changes in technology and with emerging threats.
From ACM News
At Berkeley, a New Digital Privacy Protest
After hackers breached the computer network of the U.C.L.A. medical center last summer, Janet Napolitano, president of the University of California, and her office moved to shore up security across the university system’s 10…
From ACM News
Robotic Comet Lander Philae Says Good-Bye
On a dark stretch of the chilly Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko the lander Philae has begun a lonely and silent vigil.
From ACM TechNews
Usda Announces Open Data Challenge Winners
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced the winners of the USDA-Microsoft Innovation Challenge.
From ACM TechNews
Solving a Problem With Data: Researchers Build System to Protect Roads in the Spring
Researchers are using near-real-time data collection to demonstrate how states can improve their ability to protect brittle roads from heavy vehicles at the end of winter.
From ACM TechNews
Scientists Build a Neural Network Using Plastic Memristors
A group of Russian and Italian scientists have used plastic memristors to create a neural network.
From ACM News
Techiest Super Bowl Ever: Silicon Valley's Stadium Girds For the Big Game
Levi's Stadium has been in beta since it opened a year and a half ago.
From ACM News
Computational Learning Techniques Becoming Mainstream
Applying support vector machines to predictive analytics.
From ACM News
Deciphering the Language of the Brain
Understanding how brains work is one of the greatest scientific challenges of our times, but despite the impression sometimes given in the popular press, researchers are still a long way from some basic levels of understanding…
From ACM News
k Scientists Gain Licence to Edit Genes in Human Embryos
Scientists in London have been granted permission to edit the genomes of human embryos for research, UK fertility regulators announced. The 1 February approval by the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) represents…
From ACM News
A Search Engine For Your Memories
People are always forgetting names. That's because, at least in part, names are arbitrary. A name, in and of itself, doesn't offer much context.
From ACM News
Sandy Selfie Sent from Nasa Mars Rover
The latest self-portrait from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the car-size mobile laboratory beside a dark dune where it has been scooping and sieving samples of sand.
From ACM TechNews
New Technologies Give Government Ample Means to Track Suspects, Study Finds
U.S. intelligence agencies' persistent warning that encrypted communications will prevent them from tracking criminals is greatly distorted.