Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
April 2020
From ACM TechNews
AI Finds 2D Materials in the Blink of an Eye
A new artificial intelligence system can quickly find and label two-dimensional materials in microscope images.
From ACM News
Behind the Global Efforts to Make a Privacy-first Coronavirus Tracking App
The hope is that smartphone tracking — combined with widespread testing — can help create a framework for cities to let people resume their lives.
From ACM News
WhatsApp is Limiting Message Forwarding to Combat Coronavirus Misinformation
From today, messages identified as "highly forwarded" can be forwarded to a single person, instead of five.
From ACM News
Covid-19: The Race to Create Privacy-focused Contact Tracing Tools
As authorities seek technological solutions to the pandemic, experts fear the consequences for civil liberties.
From ACM News
Keeping Students Educated and Engaged
The use of distance learning has grown quickly in primary education, in response to school closures due to the coronavirus pandemic.
From ACM TechNews
Study Uses AI to Estimate Unexploded Bombs From Vietnam War
Researchers at The Ohio State University (OSU) used artificial intelligence to find unexploded Vietnam War-era bombs in Cambodia.
From ACM TechNews
How a Real Dog Taught a Robot Dog to Walk
Researchers at Google have developed a robotic dog and taught it to walk by showing it motion-capture videos of real dogs walking on treadmills.
From ACM TechNews
How Are You Feeling? Surveys Aim to Detect COVID-19 Hot Spots Early
More than 2 million Britons and 150,000 Israelis have completed health surveys to trace COVID-19 outbreaks and send resources where they can do the most good.
From ACM TechNews
A 3D-Printed Brain Could Make It Easier to Find Cancer Treatments
Researchers have developed a technique to study glioblastoma brain tumors using a three-dimensionally (3D)-printed framework composed of human brain cells and biomaterials.
From ACM TechNews
That Chatbot May Be Chatty, but Is It Engaging?
Researchers have developed a technique for evaluating chatbots' conversational skills based on whether their dialogues are genuinely interesting to the user.
From ACM News
COVID-19 Response: New Jersey Urgently Needs COBOL Programmers (Yes, You Read That Correctly)
The danger of relying on COBOL despite its obsolescence is not a new issue.
From ACM News
Silent Film Reel Shows Staff Connected to Bletchley Park for First Time
Footage, preserved in original canister, shows people who worked at secret wartime site
From ACM Careers
Vint Cerf Tweets 'Good News' on Coronavirus Recovery
"Good news," Internet pioneer Vinton G. Cerf tweeted Friday that he and his wife are recovering from COVID-19, the coronavirus disease.
From ACM TechNews
COVID-19 Malware Will Wipe Your PC, Rewrite MBR
ZDNet has identified five COVID-19-themed malware strains that can wipe an infected PC's files or rewrite its master boot record (MBR).
From ACM TechNews
Engineers 3D-Print Soft, Rubbery Brain Implants
Engineers have developed a way to three-dimensionally print neural probes and other electronic devices that are as soft and flexible as rubber.
From ACM TechNews
Scientists Develop 'Backpack' Computers to Track Wild Animals in Hard-to-Reach Habitats
A team of collaborated on the development of wireless attachable "backpack" computers that can be used to track tiny animals in hard-to-reach habitats.
From ACM TechNews
World's Most Essential Open-Source Code to Be Stored in Arctic Vault
GitHub this month plans to add another 100 million folders to its existing cache of the equivalent of 10,000 folders of source code files in Coal Mine 3, a disused facility on the island of Spitsbergen in Svalbard, Norway.
From ACM TechNews
FCC Moves to Boost Wi-Fi Speed
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will vote on whether to permit Wi-Fi devices to access a greater portion of the radiofrequency spectrum.
From ACM TechNews
As Coronavirus Surveillance Escalates, Personal Privacy Plummets
Many countries scrambling to contain the coronavirus pandemic are deploying digital surveillance to control their populations.
From ACM TechNews
Wearable Strain Sensor Using Light Transmittance Helps Measure Physical Signals Better
A new wearable strain sensor can complete sensitive, stable, and continuous measurements of physical signals.
From ACM TechNews
Research by University of Chicago Ph.D. Student, EPiQC Wins IBM Q Best Paper
A new approach for using a quantum computer to realize a near-term "killer app" was awarded the $2,500 first prize in the 2019 IBM Q Best Paper Award competition.
From ACM TechNews
Robots Use Light Beams to Zap Hospital Viruses
A robotic system uses eight UV-C ultraviolet-light-emitting bulbs to destroy bacteria, viruses, and other harmful microbes.
From ACM News
CNNs Catch Animals in the Wild
Researchers are using convolutional neural networks to identify the few frames of interest among massive amounts of visual information.
From ACM News
Soil Sifters
Algorithms and supercomputers help tease out how soil microbes affect global climate.
From ACM TechNews
With Medical Equipment in Short Supply, 3D Printing Steps Up in Coronavirus Crisis
A shortage of medical equipment is spurring healthcare providers to turn to three-dimensional (3D) printing as a temporary solution during the coronavirus pandemic.
From ACM TechNews
Washington State Signs Facial Recognition Curbs Into Law; Critics Want Ban
Washington State Governor Jay Inslee on Tuesday signed the first U.S. state law curbing law enforcement's use of facial recognition technology.
From ACM TechNews
Some Mobile Phone Apps May Contain Hidden Behaviors That Users Never See
Cybersecurity researchers have found that many mobile phone applications allow others to access private data or block user-provided content through "backdoor secrets."
From ACM TechNews
'Smart' Devices Help Reduce Adverse Outcomes of Common Heart Condition
Researchers have found that mobile health devices can help screen for and detect atrial fibrillation.
From ACM TechNews
Study: Fake Russian Twitter Accounts Politicized Discourse About Vaccines
Fraudulent Twitter accounts created by the Russian Internet Research Agency may have contributed to politicizing Americans’ views on vaccines.
From ACM TechNews
Restrictions Are Slowing Coronavirus Infections, Data Suggest
Data suggests that mass business closures and social-distancing edicts imposed to fight the coronavirus pandemic are helping reduce the numbers of fevers recorded across the U.S.