Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
April 2016
From ACM TechNews
Droning On
University of Delaware professor Guoquan Huang has received a two-year grant to design resource-aware, attack-resilient, consistent micro aerial vehicle navigation.
From ACM TechNews
New Electronic Display Is 10 Times Thinner Than Human Skin
University of Tokyo researchers have developed a thin-film electronic display that can be laminated onto a person's body without the wearer knowing it is there.
From ACM News
Zoo of Theories Showcased in Publications on Lhc Anomaly
Hints of a new subatomic particle at the world’s most powerful atom smasher have inspired theoretical physicists to write more than 300 papers in the past four months.
From ACM News
Search Engine's Author Profiles Now Driven By Influence Metrics
"It’s important to be selective," says CEO Etzioni.
From ACM TechNews
Triple Threat: of T Computer Scientist Combines Machine Learning, Robotics, and Computer Vision
Raquel Urtasun is specializing in creating algorithms to help computers make decisions previously reserved for humans.
From ACM News
Robotic Consensus
Planning algorithms for teams of robots fall into two categories: centralized algorithms, in which a single computer makes decisions for the whole team, and decentralized algorithms, in which each robot makes its own decisions…
From ACM News
Who's the Michael Jordan of Computer Science? New Tool Ranks Researchers' Influence
Last fall, the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Seattle, Washington, launched a challenge to Google Scholar, PubMed, and other online search engines by unveiling a service called Semantic Scholar.
From ACM News
Mit's Teaching AI How to Help Stop Cyberattacks
Finding evidence that someone compromised your cyber defenses is a grind.
From ACM TechNews
Research in a Virtual World
A growing number of projects from disciplines across the University of Alabama are using virtual reality technology.
From ACM TechNews
Wireless Signal Sent Through Meat Fast Enough to Watch Netflix
Andrew Singer from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and colleagues have successfully sent a wireless signal through slabs of pork and beef.
From ACM TechNews
Cybersecurity Is Harder Than Building Bridges
Cybersecurity is a complex and messy challenge, but there are indications it can be improved.
From ACM TechNews
The Minecraft Generation
The extremely popular Minecraft computer game is turning children into a generation of computing tinkerers and engineers.
From ACM TechNews
A Single-Atom Magnet Breaks New Ground For Future Data Storage
Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and ETH Zurich say they have built the world's most stable single-atom magnet.
From ACM News
New Ceres Images Show Bright Craters
Craters with bright material on dwarf planet Ceres shine in new images from NASA's Dawn mission.
From ACM TechNews
A 'big Science' Approach For Australian Cybersecurity Research?
The director of the Defense Science and Technology Group's Cyber and Electronic Warfare Division recommends a big-science approach to cybersecurity in Australia.
From ACM News
You Want to Build an Empire Like Google's? This Is Your Os
Google called it Borg, and for many years, it was among the company's best-kept secrets.
From ACM News
Europe Tried to Rein In Google. It Backfired.
Google is a top target for European regulators and privacy watchdogs, who openly fear and distrust its dominance.
From ACM News
'Brainprints' Offer Better Security Than Fingerprints
Research into dyslexia has led to an unexpected breakthrough in security and identity verification with biometric "brainprints" that could one day replace fingerprints and passwords.
From ACM News
Hello, Coding
Preparing children for a world in which everything can be a computer.
From ACM TechNews
Coding and Computers Help Spot Methane, Explosives
Duke University researchers are using software to improve the performance of chemical-sniffing mass spectrometers.
From ACM TechNews
Computers in Your Clothes? A Milestone For Wearable Electronics
Ohio State University researchers have developed functional textiles that gather, store, and transmit digital information.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Crack Microsoft and Google's Shortened rls to Spy on People
Cornell Tech researchers have shown brute-force attacks against shortened uniform resource locators can enable hackers to spread malware on victims' computers.
From ACM News
Fair se Prevails as Supreme Court Rejects Google Books Copyright Case
The Supreme Court on Monday declined (PDF) to hear a challenge from the Authors Guild and other writers claiming Google's scanning of their books amounts to wanton copyright infringement and not fair use.
From ACM Careers
Attention Students: Put Your Laptops Away
As laptops become smaller and more ubiquitous, and with the advent of tablets, the idea of taking notes by hand just seems old-fashioned to many students today.
From ACM TechNews
Location Data on Two Apps Enough to Identify Someone, Says Study
Individuals can be identified by matching their movements across two datasets, according to researchers at Columbia University and Google.
From ACM TechNews
Robots Can Help Young Patients Engage in Rehab
Researchers from the Swinburne University of Technology are exploring the use of social robots as therapeutic aids in pediatric rehabilitation.
From ACM TechNews
Two-Factor Authentication Bypassed in Simple Attacks
VU University Amsterdam researchers have demonstrated practical attacks against both Android and iOS devices.
From ACM TechNews
Half of Mooc sers in Developing Countries Get Certificates
A survey found the use of massive open online courses is very different in emerging countries than in the U.S.
From ACM TechNews
Microsoft Research Chief: AI Is Still Too Stupid to Wipe S Out (and Will Be For Decades)
Microsoft Research Cambridge laboratory director Chris Bishop dismisses the fear artificial intelligence is on the cusp of overtaking human intelligence.
From ACM News
Gene-Edited Crispr Mushroom Escapes S Regulation
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will not regulate a mushroom genetically modified with the gene-editing tool CRISPR–Cas9.