Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
April 2012
From ACM TechNews
ndergrad Computer Science Enrollments Rise For Fourth Straight Year
The number of undergraduate students enrolled in computer science programs rose 9.6 percent in the 2011-12 school year, the fourth consecutive annual increase, according to the Computing Research Association's Taulbee Survey.…
From ACM TechNews
Geek Chic: 'Brogrammer?' Now, That's Hot
The image of the geeky techie is fading in real life, thanks to the legacy of industry giants such as Apple founder Steve Jobs and the increasing dependence of more Americans on the skills of those who know how electronic devices…
From ACM TechNews
Chips as Mini Internets
MIT researchers have established theoretical limits on the efficiency of packet-switched on-chip communication networks, and have presented measurements from a test chip that comes close to reaching several of those limits.
From ACM News
Check Your Mac For Malware
Mac fans recently got a little taste of what it's like to be a Windows user.
From ACM News
Will We Ever Create a Perfect Lie Detector?
To create machines that can always tell when someone is lying, we need to know much more about what goes on in our brains.
From ACM TechNews
Linux Foundation Takes Linux Pulse in Progress Report
The Linux Foundation has updated its progress report on Linux kernel development for the fourth time.
From ACM TechNews
Is It Time For Javascript to Step Aside For the Next Big 'web' Thing?
At Microsoft's recent Lang.Next conference, a panel of experts discussed various aspects of programming, agreeing that JavaScript is an unforgiving language but is still necessary in today's world.
From ACM TechNews
From Beaker to Bits: Unique Collaboration Between Biologists and Computer Scientists Creates Computational Model of Human Tissue
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute researchers have developed a computational model called cell graphs that links the structure of human tissue to its corresponding biological function.
From ACM News
Iran Moving Ahead with Plans for National Intranet
Iran topped a recent list of repressive regimes that most aggressively restrict Internet freedom. The list, published by Reporters Without Borders, is a part of the 2012 edition of the organization’s Enemies of the Internet report…
From ACM News
Nasa Views Our Perpetually Moving Ocean
The swirling flows of Earth's perpetually changing ocean come to life in a new NASA scientific visualization that captures the movement of tens of thousands of ocean currents.
From ACM News
Mobile Apps Reach Internet Tipping Point
June 2011 appears to be the first time people in the U.S. spent more time online with apps than with the Web.
From ACM News
Ford Is Ready For the Autonomous Car. Are Drivers?
The auto industry has already developed all the technology necessary to create truly autonomous vehicles, Ford engineers claim.
From ACM News
Seeking Robots to Go Where First Responders Can't
In the event of another disaster at a nuclear power plant, the first responders may not be humans but robots.
From ACM News
Everything You Wanted to Know About Data Mining but Were Afraid to Ask
Big data is everywhere we look these days.
From ACM News
Company Wants to Pull Small Town Pay Phones
Phone service was spotty in Chambers before the two new nearby cell towers.
From ACM News
A Little Device That's Trying to Read Your Thoughts
Already surrounded by machines that allow him, painstakingly, to communicate, the physicist Stephen Hawking last summer donned what looked like a rakish black headband that held a feather-light device the size of a small matchbox…
From ACM TechNews
Stanford Study to Try Cold Cash and Social Game to Relieve Rush Hour Traffic
Stanford University's Capri project aims to motivate people to avoid rush hour traffic by offering a chance at a large reward instead of a guaranteed small payout.
From ACM TechNews
Robotic Design and Production as Easy as 1-2-3
Researchers at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the University of Pennsylvania are developing technology that could make it possible for users to design, customize, and print a specialized…
From ACM TechNews
Driverless Cars Ready to Hit Our Roads
Driverless cars are moving closer to becoming a reality, as politicians in several U.S. states rush to get such cars on the roads.
From ACM News
Shifting Sands
Sand in an hourglass might seem simple and straightforward, but such granular materials are actually tricky to model.
From ACM News
Beware Apps Bearing Unwanted Gifts
As companies increasingly allow workers to use personal smartphones and tablets on the job, they are confronting a potential new security threat: malicious software embedded in games and apps.
From ACM News
Researchers Release New Exploits to Hijack Critical Infrastructure
Researchers have released two new exploits that attack common design vulnerabilities in a computer component used to control critical infrastructure, such as refineries and factories.
From ACM TechNews
Programming Computers to Help Computer Programmers
Computer scientists from Rice University will participate in a project to create intelligent software agents that help people write code faster and with fewer errors.
From ACM TechNews
Flexible Displays Bend What's Possible For Computers
Although the latest flexible display technologies are likely to take the form of personal devices, they also could find their way into larger surface displays, such as furniture and wallpaper.
From ACM TechNews
How Smart Is Your Home?
Within reach is a smart home that is responsive to residents' wishes and needs due to technological advances that support ambient intelligence, including sensors, computer networks, databases, and intelligent agents, writes Washington…
From ACM Careers
Google's Project Glass Engineers: Who Are They?
Google’s Project Glass has put new focus on Google X, the lab at the tech giant where engineers work to develop the next big thing.
From ACM News
Verizon Envisions 4g Wireless in Just About Anything
Tucked away in a new office block in Waltham, Massachusetts, is a kind of wireless Tomorrowland.
From ACM News
The Human Voice, as Game Changer
Vlad Sejnoha is talking to the TV again.
From ACM TechNews
Simulation Software Optimizes Networks
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing SCAI have developed the Multiphysical Network Simulation Framework, which can be used to analyze and optimize transport grids for electricity, gas…
From ACM TechNews
MIT Team Thinks Outside the Box to Snag Social Media Prize
A team affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology won the U.S. State Department's social media contest, the TAG Challenge, which required participants to locate and photograph actors posing as thieves who roamed…