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
t Professors Collaborate, Improve Robot Soccer Team
University of Texas researchers are working on applying aspects of the human cerebellum, the part of the brain that governs coordination, to a robot soccer team.
From ACM TechNews
First-Ever 3d Printed Robots Made of Both Solids and Liquids
Researchers have developed "printable hydraulics," a technique for three-dimensional printing of robots involving simultaneously printing solid and liquid materials.
From ACM News
White House Declines to Support Encryption Legislation Sources
The White House is declining to offer public support for draft legislation that would empower judges to require technology companies such as Apple Inc to help law enforcement crack encrypted data, sources familiar with the discussions…
From ACM News
Forget Apple vs. the Fbi: Whatsapp Just Switched on Encryption For a Billion People
For most of the past six weeks, the biggest story out of Silicon Valley was Apple's battle with the FBI over a federal order to unlock the iPhone of a mass shooter.
From ACM News
Controversial Dark-Matter Claim Faces ltimate Test
It is the elephant in the room for dark-matter research: a claimed detection that is hard to believe, impossible to confirm and surprisingly difficult to explain away.
From ACM News
Opportunity's Devilish View from on High
From its perch high on a ridge, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity recorded this image of a Martian dust devil twisting through the valley below.
From ACM TechNews
Gestures Improve Communication, Even With Robots
Researchers in the U.K. have found it is easier for people to understand robot avatars when they use "iconic" hand gestures together with speech.
From ACM TechNews
The Twittersphere Does Listen to the Voice of Reason--Sometimes
Tweets from those at the center of a fast-moving story can slow the spread of rumors and correct misinformation that has taken on a life of its own.
From ACM TechNews
Tau Uses 'deep Learning' to Assist Overburdened Diagnosticians
Tel Aviv University researchers have developed a range of tools to facilitate the computer-assisted diagnosis of x-rays and other medical imaging.
From ACM TechNews
Data-Mining Algorithm Reveals the Stormy Evolution of Mathematics Over 700 Years
University of Namur researchers are using network science to map the links between mathematicians of the last 700 years.
From ACM TechNews
How Facebook Is Helping the Blind 'see' Pictures Their Friends Share Online
Facebook on Tuesday launched Automatic Alternative Text, a tool designed to enable sight-impaired users to "see" pictures posted by friends online.
From ACM News
Nvidia nveils First Pascal Graphics Card, the Monstrous Tesla P100
The first full-fat GPU based on Nvidia's all-new Pascal architecture is here.
From ACM News
A $2 Billion Chip to Accelerate Artificial Intelligence
The field of artificial intelligence has experienced a striking spurt of progress in recent years, with software becoming much better at understanding images, speech, and new tasks such as how to play games. Now the company whose…
From ACM TechNews
Website Seeks to Make Government Data Easier to Sift Through
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab on April 4 announced Data USA, designed to make it easier to sift through vast troves of government information.
From ACM Careers
Say What You See, Facebook
When Matt King signed up for Facebook, in 2009, he had been completely blind for nearly twenty years.
From ACM News
The Food Pyramid Is Out
Algorithms are helping nutrition get personalized.
From ACM News
Cern Is Seeking Secrets of the niverse, or Maybe Opening the Portals of Hell
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, is gearing up for another run at smashing particles together to unlock the secrets of the universe.
From ACM News
Cyber War Comes to the Suburbs
The Bowman Avenue Dam, in Rye, New York, would seem an unlikely candidate for a new front in the cyber wars.
From ACM News
Rover Takes on Steepest Slope Ever Tried on Mars
NASA's long-lived Mars rover Opportunity is driving to an alternative hillside target after a climb on the steepest slope ever tackled by any Mars rover.
From ACM TechNews
China's Companies Poised to Take Leap in Developing a Driverless Car
China could emerge as the premier country for the development and adoption of self-driving vehicles.
From ACM TechNews
Bringing Women Back to Computer Science: w in National Spotlight Over Efforts
The University of Washington's Department of Computer Science and Engineering last year awarded 30% of its bachelor degrees in computer science to women.
From ACM TechNews
Uci to Launch First-of-its-Kind Official E-Sports Initiative in the Fall
The University of California, Irvine is launching an official e-sports initiative this fall, which it says is the first of its kind for a public research university.
From ACM TechNews
The 'not Face' Is a Universal Part of Language, Study Suggests
Ohio State University researchers have identified a universal facial expression interpreted across many cultures as the embodiment of negative emotion.
From ACM TechNews
What Will it Take to Make A.I. Sound More Human?
Conversation fillers such as "hmm" and "uh-huh" are critical to improving communication between humans and artificial intelligence.
From ACM News
Data-Mining Algorithm Reveals the Stormy Evolution of Mathematics Over 700 Years
The history of mathematics is in some ways a study of the human mind and how it has understood the world.
From ACM TechNews
Robots Infiltrate Insect World to Learn Their Ways
Paris Diderot University researchers have developed a way to generate a robot cockroach's behavior automatically.
From ACM TechNews
Million-Dollar Babies
Experts in machine learning are in high demand because large technology companies use it in many activities.
From ACM News
Biology Software Promises Easier Way to Program Living Cells
Synthetic biologists have created software that automates the design of DNA circuits for living cells.
From ACM News
Why Microsoft Believes that AI Bots Are the Only Logical Path Forward
For Microsoft, the future of communication is bots.
From ACM TechNews
To Make Computers Better, Let Them Get Sloppy
Rice University's Krishna Palem wants to address the trade-off between computing performance and energy efficiency.