Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
March 2022
From ACM TechNews
ML Offers Shortcut to Optimal HVAC Operation
A new method for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning control mechanisms use machine learning to balance energy cost, comfort, and efficiency while enabling fast computing.
From ACM TechNews
HP Patches 16 UEFI Firmware Bugs Allowing Stealthy Malware Infections
Researchers at Binarly discovered 16 high-impact UEFI firmware vulnerabilities affecting multiple HP models.
From ACM TechNews
Getting a Handle on Robotics Challenge
A robotic hand developed by Yale University researchers can fully rotate objects as its grippers break contact, similar to a human moving an object around to find the best grip.
From ACM News
The Data Science Boom is Here
Data science brings a new spin to computer science education.
From ACM News
Reality Intrudes on a Utopian Crypto Vision
The cryptocurrency boom has spawned enterprises democratically governed by a community of users. Or that's the theory. Making it work has been much mess
From ACM News
AI Will Evaluate Your Job Application. Do You Still Want to Apply?
A study suggests that the answer may depend on how artificial intelligence is used.
From ACM News
Biden Orders Sweeping Cryptocurrency Review
The long-awaited executive order aims to ensure that the U.S. fosters the surging industry while mitigating its potential threats.
From ACM TechNews
'Spooky Action' Could Help Boost Quantum Machine Learning
Quantum entanglement could help clear a path toward quantum machine learning
From ACM TechNews
AI Model Detects Mental Disorders Based on Web Posts
Analyzes emotions, not specific content, in social media posts to generate a user's emotional "fingerprint"
From ACM TechNews
How Picking Up Your Smartphone Could Reveal Your Identity
Researchers from Lancaster University and the University of Bath use phone usage time to help identify users
From ACM News
Is It the End of the Road for Computing Power?
That phone in your pocket was predicted by Moore's Law, but it is bumping against its physical and economic limits.
From ACM News
Hackers Find a New Way to Deliver Devastating DDoS Attacks
Cybercriminals are exploiting a fleet of more than 100,000 misconfigured servers to knock websites offline.
From ACM News
Biden Puts Big Tech's Favorite Business Model on Notice
The regulation of surveillance advertising used to be a fringe idea. Now it's in the State of the Union address, at least when it comes to kids.
From ACM News
Volunteer Hackers Converge on Ukraine Conflict
The online battles have blurred lines between state-backed hackers and patriotic amateurs, making it difficult for governments to understand who is attacking them and how to retaliate.
From ACM News
Russia Is Strengthening Its Censorship Regime by Blocking Facebook
Why Putin's crackdown on social media is a worrying sign.
From ACM News
In Memoriam Andrea Danyluk 1963–2022
Danyluk was Mary A. and William Wirt Warren Professor of Computer Science at Williams College, and co-chair of the Committee on Widening Participation in Computing Research of the Computing Research Association.
From ACM TechNews
Robots Sanitize Avelo Aircraft for COVID-19, Other Pathogens
Houston, TX-based startup Avelo Airlines is using autonomous robots from Canadian manufacturer Aero HygenX to disinfect aircraft cabins for COVID-19 and other viruses.
From ACM TechNews
Observing Time Crystals
Researchers at Australia's University of Melbourne observed a time crystal in action, with the help of quantum computing technology.
From ACM TechNews
'Fingerprint' ML Technique Identifies Bacteria in Seconds
Researchers combined surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy and a deep learning model to identify bacteria in seconds with up to 98% accuracy.
From ACM TechNews
Cutting Through the Clutter
Harvard Medical School scientists created the vibration of effects auditing tool to improve the reliability of studies that explore the relationships between things.
From ACM News
Twitter Wants to Reinvent Itself, by Merging the Old With the New
The company is undertaking a far-reaching effort to change how it works. For some, it is an echo of their early idealism and a vision for what the Internet could have been.
From ACM TechNews
Move Over Candy Bars, New York Vending Machine Now Sells NFT Art
The first in-person non-fungible token vending machine has been installed in New York City by digital art collecting platform Neon.
From ACM TechNews
Robust Radar: AI Sensor Technology for Autonomous Driving
An artificial intelligence system for automotive radar sensors filters out interfering signals from other radar sensors to improve object detection.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Can Steal Data During Homomorphic Encryption
Researchers at North Carolina State University and Turkey's Dokuz Eylul University have cracked next-generation homomorphic encryption via side-channel attacks.
From ACM TechNews
Robot Photographer Has Eye for Aesthetics
Cornell University researchers have developed a robotic photography system that can automatically rove an indoor space and shoot aesthetically appealing photos.
From ACM TechNews
AI Tool Could Help Plan NYS's Transition to Clean Electrical Power
Cornell University's Fengqi You and Ning Zhao have designed an artificial intelligence tool that could help New York state plan its switch to clean electricity
From ACM TechNews
Injecting Fairness into ML Models
Researchers have devleoped a method of incorporating fairness into machine learning models, even if they are trained on unfair data.
From ACM TechNews
A Smart Self-Learning Assistance System for the Manufacturing Industry
The MADDOX self-learning assistance system can analyze machine and process data in order to boost manufacturing efficiency.
From ACM News
Validating NFTs
Ensuring the security of non-fungible tokens.
From ACM News
Google's New Tech Can Read Your Body Language—Without Cameras
The company's ATAP research team is using radar to help computers respond to your movements, like turning off a TV if it senses you've dozed off.