Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
March 2016
From ACM News
Log In to Your Phone with a Finger-Drawn Doodle Instead of a Password
Rather than painstakingly typing in passwords on your smartphone, you may eventually just swipe a shape or other pattern on its display to authenticate yourself for everything from mobile banking to shopping.
From ACM News
A New Look at Ancient Mars
Among Earth/s planetary neighbors, Mars has been the one on which humanity has most often, and most variously, projected its hopes and fears.
From ACM News
Defense Secretary Favors Strong Encryption, Not 'back Doors'
Declaring that strong encryption is essential to the nation's security, Defense Secretary Ash Carter told a tech industry audience Wednesday that he's "not a believer in back doors," or encryption programs that leave openings…
From ACM TechNews
IBM Expands Watson Analytics Program, Creates Citizen Data Scientists
IBM is expanding its Watson Analytics academic program and launching a new student version of Watson Analytics.
From ACM TechNews
Carnegie Mellon's Pokerbot Models Asymmetric Data
Carnegie Mellon University's Pokerbot won first place at the Annual Computer Poker Competition in the total bankroll category.
From ACM TechNews
An Algorithm For Teamwork
A team of University of Victoria students took first place at the third annual BattleSnake competition hosted by the university.
From ACM TechNews
Getting From Here to There
University of Delaware researchers have developed a method to reduce the amount of data associated with intelligent transportation systems.
From ACM News
How the Feds Could Get Into Iphones Without Apple's Help
It's a showdown that has the country mesmerized.
From ACM News
Tiny Cameras to See in the Intestines
The digestive tract can be inhospitable terrain to examine.
From ACM News
Advertising Company Will se Its Billboards To Track Passing Cellphones
Clear Channel Outdoor—one of the largest outdoor advertising companies in the U.S.—is starting a new program called Radar that will use billboards to map real-world habits and behaviors from nearby consumers.
From ACM News
Isis Turns to Foreign Encryption Products as Apple-Fbi Fight Rages in .s.
FBI and Apple officials spent Tuesday afternoon on Capitol Hill, debating American encryption laws with members of Congress. Prompted by a case related to the ISIS-inspired terrorist attack in San Bernardino, the intense discussion…
From ACM TechNews
New Circuit Material Can Be Stretched and Twisted Like Chewing Gum
Swiss Institute of Technology in Lausanne researchers say they have developed a new material that enables electronics to be stretched up to four times their original length.
From ACM TechNews
Google: Self-Driving Car Followed 'the Spirit of the Road' Before Accident
Google says it has gained insights concerning a Feb. 14 accident in which one of its autonomous vehicles collided with a city bus in Mountain View, CA.
From ACM TechNews
Tech Workers Increasingly Look to Leave Silicon Valley
A growing number of technology professionals from the San Francisco Bay area are looking to leave Silicon Valley for other technology hubs, according to Indeed.com.
From ACM TechNews
How to Tame Your Robot
Carnegie Mellon University researcher Madeline Gannon has created the means to instruct a robot to perform tasks by following a human coder's motions.
From ACM TechNews
Iarpa Wants Smarter Algorithms--Not More of Them
U.S. Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity program manager Jacob Vogelstein discusses the economics of his agency using previously rejected algorithms.
From ACM News
White House Officials Soften Approach at Rsa Conference
Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch joined a parade of Obama administration officials to tech's home turf on Tuesday. Their message: National security depends on the industry’s cooperation.
From ACM TechNews
In Emergencies, Should You Trust a Robot?
Georgia Institute of Technology researchers report humans may put too much faith in robots for their own safety.
From ACM News
Et Search: Look For the Aliens Looking For Earth
By watching how the light dims as a planet orbits in front of its parent star, NASA's Kepler spacecraft has discovered more than 1,000 worlds since its launch in 2009. Now, astronomers are flipping that idea on its head in the…
From ACM News
In Fighting FBI, Apple Says Free Speech Rights Mean No Forced Coding
The Justice Department wants Apple to write special software to help it break into the iPhone used by one the San Bernardino terrorists.
From ACM TechNews
New Gpu Memory Standards to Supercharge Graphics
The increasing popularity of life-like games and virtual reality technology is pushing the computing industry to develop better graphics technology.
From ACM TechNews
Quantum Dot Solids: This Generation's Silicon Wafer?
Quantum dot solids, or crystals made out of crystals, have the potential to usher in a new era in electronics.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Grow Cyberforests to Predict Climate Change
A new computer simulation grows realistic forests to determine how drought, warmer weather, and other climate-related changes will affect forests across North America.
From ACM News
Cryptography Pioneers Receive ACM A.m. Turing Award
Diffie and Hellman’s invention of public-key cryptography and digital signatures revolutionized computer security and made Internet commerce possible.
From ACM News
Ny Judge: S Cannot Make Apple Provide Iphone Data
A federal judge ruled Monday that the U.S. Justice Department cannot use a 227-year-old law to force Apple to provide the FBI with access to locked iPhone data, dealing a blow to the government in its battle with the company…
From ACM News
In Memoriam: Edward J. Mccluskey 1929 – 2016
"A storied engineer who made some of the most important and early contributions to computer hardware design," McCluskey died recently at the age of 86.
From Communications of the ACM
Deep or Shallow, NLP Is Breaking Out
Neural net advances improve computers' language ability in many fields.
From Communications of the ACM
Rich Data, Poor Fields
Diverse technologies help farmers produce food in resource-poor areas.
From Communications of the ACM
Peter Naur: 1928-2016
Peter Naur, a Danish computer scientist and 2005 recipient of the ACM A.M. Turing Award, died recently after a brief illness.
From Communications of the ACM
When Computers Stand in the Schoolhouse Door
Classification algorithms can lead to biased decisions, so researchers are trying to identify such biases and root them out.