Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
March 2020
From ACM TechNews
System Trains Driverless Cars in Simulation Before They Hit the Road
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have created a simulation system to train driverless cars prior to their deployment on actual streets.
From ACM TechNews
Cybercriminals Take Advantage of Coronavirus
Hackers are targeting critical healthcare systems already strained by the coronavirus pandemic, compromising computer networks and disrupting patient care.\
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Use 3D Printing, Sensors to Create Models for Hydropower Testing
Researchers are using three-dimensional printers and sensors to create fake fish to help test the environmental impact of hydroelectric dams on fish populations.
From ACM TechNews
IT Spending Forecasts Take a Hit as Coronavirus Slams Global Markets
International Data Corp. analysts predict companies will scale back information technology investments as the coronavirus pandemic roils global markets.
From ACM TechNews
How AI Could Help Translate the Written Language of Ancient Civilizations
A collaboration by the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute and its Department of Computer Science could enable automated transcription of ancient tablets of Persia's Achaemenid Empire.
From ACM TechNews
Software Release Cycles Accelerate, but Automation Is Not Keeping Up
A Cloud Native Computing Foundation survey of 1,337 managers and practitioners found that most software developer outfits are delivering weekly or faster releases.
From ACM News
Keeping Government Out of Your Business
The Enforcer software can keep government surveillance from straying into illegality.
From ACM News
There Is a Racial Divide in Speech Recognition Systems, Researchers Say
Technology from Amazon, Apple, Google, IBM, and Microsoft misidentified 35% of words from people who were black. White people fared much better.
From ACM News
The Search for E.T. Goes on Hold, for Now
A popular screen saver takes a break while its inventors try to digest data that may yet be hiding news of extraterrestrials.
From ACM News
Big Tech Could Emerge From Coronavirus Crisis Stronger Than Ever
Amazon is hiring aggressively to meet customer demand. Traffic has soared on Facebook and YouTube. And cloud computing has become essential to home workers.
From ACM News
Kenyan Government Finally Approves Loon’s Internet-delivery Balloons
The balloons are being fast-tracked to improve communication during the coronavirus pandemic.
From ACM TechNews
How CDC is Trying to Forecast Coronavirus's Spread
A group of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is one of several dozen teams enlisted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to adapt their annual flu forecasting techniques to predict the spread of coronavirus…
From ACM TechNews
IBM Partners with White House to Direct Supercomputing Power for Coronavirus Research
IBM will help coordinate an initiative to supply more than 330 petaflops of computing power to scientists researching COVID-19.
From ACM TechNews
Computer Scientists Develop AI System that Predicts Air Pollution Levels
A new artificial intelligence system can predict air pollution levels as much as two days in advance.
From ACM TechNews
This Drone Can Play Dodgeball
Researchers equipped a quadcopter with event cameras and algorithms to reduce its reaction time and enable it to avoid a ball thrown at it from a short distance.
From ACM TechNews
China to Launch National Blockchain Network in 100 Cities
An alliance of Chinese government groups, banks, and technology firms plans to launch one of the first blockchain networks constructed and maintained by a central government.
From ACM TechNews
DDoS Attacks Could Affect Next-Generation 911 Call Systems
Researchers have found that next-generation 911 systems that accommodate text, images, and video continue to be vulnerable to many of the same cyberattacks as previous systems.
From ACM TechNews
The Humble Tire Gets Kitted Out with Technology
Tire manufacturers are designing intelligent tires to improve the braking of self-driving vehicles.
From ACM TechNews
Abel Prize in Mathematics Shared by Two Trailblazers of Probability, Dynamics
Hillel Furstenberg of Israel's Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Yale University's Gregory Margulis share this year's Abel Prize in mathematics for trailblazing work in probability and dynamics.
From ACM TechNews
Stanford Engineers Create Shape-Changing, Free-Roaming Soft Robot
Researchers have developed a human-scale soft robot that can reconfigure its shape to grasp and handle objects.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Expose Vulnerabilities of Password Managers
Researchers have demonstrated that some commercial password managers may not protect users completely.
From ACM TechNews
Location Data to Gauge Lockdowns Tests Europe's Love of Privacy
Officials in Austria and Italy are using location data transmitted by mobile phones to determine the effectiveness of their coronavirus lockdown policies.
From ACM News
Abel Prize in Mathematics Shared by Trailblazers of Probability and Dynamics
Hillel Furstenberg, 84, and Gregory Margulis, 74, both retired professors, share the mathematics equivalent of a Nobel Prize.
From ACM News
Coronavirus Highlights Strengths of Self-Driving Delivery Vehicles
With quarantines across China, one company is showing the usefulness of autonomous vehicles.
From ACM TechNews
Fever-Detecting Goggles, Disinfectant Drones: Countries Turn to Tech to Fight Coronavirus
Health officials across the Asia-Pacific region are working to repurpose existing technology to help stop the coronavirus pandemic.
From ACM TechNews
AI Taps Human Wisdom for Faster, Better Cancer Diagnosis
Researchers in Canada have developed a system that combines artificial intelligence with human knowledge to provide faster, more accurate cancer diagnoses.
From ACM TechNews
Hospital Devices Exposed to Hacking with Unsupported Operating Systems
Cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks found that 83% of Internet-linked imaging devices in hospitals use outdated software containing known bugs that hackers can exploit.
From ACM TechNews
Robots Step in as Cheap Labor Dries Up in Eastern Europe
Factory owners in Eastern European are investing in automation to counter a shortage of workers and rising wages.
From ACM News
Let Evolution Design Your Robot
A U.K. research project uses evolutionary principles to design robots to help dismantle decommissioned nuclear power plants.
From ACM News
Intel to Release Neuromorphic Computing System
Pohoiki Springs, an experimental system to be rolled out this month, mimics the way human brains work to do computations faster with less energy