Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
May 2016
From ACM TechNews
The Scientists Who Simulate the End of the World
The U.S. National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center models how national infrastructure and human behavior would be affected by attacks or catastrophes.
From ACM TechNews
Building AI Is Hard--So Facebook Is Building AI That Builds AI
Facebook is building artificial intelligence algorithms that can help build AI algorithms by automating much of the trial and error that goes into their testing.
From ACM TechNews
Imagine Discovering That Your Teaching Assistant Really Is a Robot
Researchers at schools such as the Georgia Institute of Technology are testing artificial intelligence to relieve the burden of teaching assistants.
From ACM TechNews
Not Lost in Translation: Researchers 'teach' Computers to Translate Accurately
Scientists are seeking to improve the capabilities of online translation programs by embedding new artificial intelligence methods to build complete sentences.
From ACM News
Enceladus Jets: Surprises in Starlight
During a recent stargazing session, NASA's Cassini spacecraft watched a bright star pass behind the plume of gas and dust that spews from Saturn's icy moon Enceladus.
From ACM News
Computer Gleans Chemical Insight from Lab Notebook Failures
Did your experiment fail? Don't bin the data just yet—they could be useful.
From ACM News
Building AI Is Hard‹so Facebook Is Building AI That Builds AI
Deep neural networks are remaking the Internet. Able to learn very human tasks by analyzing vast amounts of digital data, these artificially intelligent systems are injecting online services with a power that just wasn’t viable…
From ACM TechNews
Artificial Intelligence: Where's the Philosophical Scrutiny?
Most researchers focus on technical achievement rather than the philosophical ramifications of artificial intelligence, writes Duke University's Vincent Conitzer.
From ACM Opinion
After Moore's Law: Predicting The Future Beyond Silicon Chips
For several decades now, Georgia Tech professor Tom Conte has been studying how to improve computers: "How do we make them faster and more efficient next time around versus what we just made?"
From ACM News
Moore's Law Running Out of Room, Tech Looks For a Successor
For decades, the computer industry has been guided by a faith that engineers would always find a way to make the components on computer chips smaller, faster and cheaper.
From ACM TechNews
Google, -M to Build Digital Tools For Flint Water Crisis
Researchers at Google and the University of Michigan's Flint and Ann Arbor campuses will develop digital tools to help Flint, MI, manage its water crisis.
From ACM TechNews
Skintrack Technology Turns Arm Into Smartwatch Touchpad
SkinTrack is a new wearable technology that enables continuous touch tracking on the user's hands and arms.
From ACM TechNews
White House Worries About Bad AI Coding
The White House released a report this week suggesting it may be important to develop ethical frameworks for designing automated computer systems.
From ACM TechNews
Before Heading to Mars, Nasa's Valkyrie Humanoid Lands at MIT
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has delivered a humanoid robot to the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
From ACM TechNews
ACM Honors Ron Perrott With Distinguished Service Award
ACM on Wednesday announced Oxford e-Research Center visiting professor and ACM Fellow Ron Perrott was awarded the ACM Distinguished Service Award.
From ACM News
The Search for Our Missing Colors
Each year, a group of experts at Pantone, the company best known for its exacting color-matching system, chooses and promotes a Color of the Year that aims to set the world’s fashion agenda—"a color snapshot of what we see taking…
From ACM News
The Gene Editor Crispr Won't Fully Fix Sick People Anytime Soon. Here's Why
This week, scientists will gather in Washington, D.C., for an annual meeting devoted to gene therapy—a long-struggling field that has clawed its way back to respectability with a string ofpromising results in small clinical trials…
From ACM News
The Leap Second: Because Our Clocks Are More Accurate Than the Earth
We've recently been treated to that extra day in February that reminds us that 2016 is a leap year.
From ACM TechNews
Looking For Art in Artificial Intelligence
Dartmouth College professors will explore the potential for algorithms to produce human-quality dance music, sonnets, and short stories.
From ACM TechNews
Does Big Data Hold the Clue to Traffic Fatalities?
Researchers are developing a high-performance computing-based framework to identify patterns in data related to driving deaths and severe injuries.
From ACM TechNews
New Tech Uses Hardware, Software to Train Dogs More Efficiently
North Carolina State University researchers have developed a customized suite of technologies that enables a computer to autonomously train a dog.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Develop Dissolvable Memristor
A research team from China and the U.K. has produced a memristor-like device made from egg proteins, magnesium, and tungsten.
From ACM News
Bypassing Rare Minerals
A Japanese team proposes an alternative to increasingly rare earths.
From ACM News
Can Artificial Intelligence Create the Next Wonder Material?
It's a strong contender for the geekiest video ever made: a close-up of a smartphone with line upon line of numbers and symbols scrolling down the screen. But when visitors stop by Nicola Marzari's office, which overlooks Lake…
From ACM TechNews
Promoting Women in Science
Utrecht University professor Lynda Hardman discusses the pressing need to promote participation of women in science in the Netherlands.
From ACM News
Not Just Bitcoin: Why the Blockchain Is a Seductive Technology to Many Industries
If you've ever run a business, whether it's an ice cream shop or a Fortune 500 company, then you've probably kept a ledger.
From ACM News
Found: Clues About Volcanoes Under Ice on Ancient Mars
Volcanoes erupted beneath an ice sheet on Mars billions of years ago, far from any ice sheet on the Red Planet today, new evidence from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter suggests.
From ACM TechNews
Hacking Into Homes: 'smart Home' Security Flaws Found in Popular System
University of Michigan researchers have developed a way to hack into the leading "smart home" automation system and get the PIN code to a home's front door.
From ACM TechNews
New Health Sensing Tool Measures Lung Function Over a Phone Call, From Anywhere in the World
University of Washington researchers have developed a health-sensing tool that can accurately measure lung function over a phone call.
From ACM TechNews
Women in Tech Band Together to Track Diversity, After Hours
Eight prominent women activists from Silicon Valley have unveiled the Project employee diversity campaign.