Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
May 2020
From ACM News
New ACM Award to Recognize Research using HPC to Combat COVID-19
Nominations are now open for the Gordon Bell Special Prize for high-performance-computing-based COVID-19 research.
From ACM News
Hitting the Heights
Rocket-assisted airplane collisions fuel better drone impact simulators.
From ACM TechNews
New Hardware Could Curb AI's Energy Appetite
Purdue University engineers have developed hardware that learns using artificial intelligence that currently runs on software platforms.
From ACM TechNews
Singapore Deploys Robot 'Dog' to Encourage Social Distancing
Singapore's government will deploy a robot from Boston Dynamics at a local park as part of a pilot project to encourage social distancing.
From ACM TechNews
Israel to Launch 'Cyber Defense Shield' for Health Sector
Israeli Health Ministry official Reuven Eliahu said Israel has developed a "cyber defense shield" to provide real-time protection from attacks on that nation’s health sector.
From ACM TechNews
Japanese Computer-Savvy Teen Designs App to Fight Pandemic
An app designed by a Japanese teenager uses GPS so people can use their iPhones to track their whereabouts and help with contract tracing during the coronavirus pandemic.
From ACM TechNews
China's WeChat Monitors Foreign Users to Refine Censorship at Home
A study by the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab in Canada warns that China's multipurpose WeChat application is monitoring foreign users to strengthen government censorship.
From ACM TechNews
Jewelry Designers Speak Up for People with Hearing Issues
Patrizia Marti at Siena University in Italy is developing a line of smart jewelry to help hearing-impaired people perceive sound.
From ACM News
NIST Scientists Create New Recipe for Single-Atom Transistors
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and their colleagues at the University of Maryland have developed a step-by-step recipe to produce atomic-scale devices.
From ACM News
COVID-19 has Blown Apart the Myth of Silicon Valley Innovation
The pandemic shows that the U.S. is no longer much good at coming up with technologies relevant to our most basic needs.
From ACM TechNews
ACM Europe TPC Statement on Principles, Practices for COVID-19 Contact Tracing Applications
The Europe Technology Policy Committee of ACM has detailed essential principles and practices for policymakers about deploying COVID-19 contact tracing systems.
From ACM TechNews
VR Concert in Helsinki Attracts Over 1 Million Spectators
A virtual reality Vappu (May Day) concert in Helsinki, Finland, drew 1.4 million spectators.
From ACM TechNews
How Many Jobs do Robots Really Replace?
Two economics professors have determined that the replacement of human workers by robots is a tangible trend, although they say claims of total automation are overstated.
From ACM TechNews
India Orders Coronavirus Tracing App for All Workers
India's government has directed all public- and private-sector employees to use a state-supported coronavirus contact tracing app.
From ACM TechNews
Tech Jobs in the Time of COVID
The first-quarter report of job search firm Dice reveals that overall hiring demand for tech professionals increased in many U.S. regions as the coronavirus emerged.
From ACM News
Artificial Intelligence Is Energy-Hungry – Solution: New AI Hardware Made of Quantum Material
Quantum material could offset energy demand of artificial intelligence.
From ACM Opinion
My Battle with COVID-19
Azer Bestavros, associate provost for computing and data sciences at Boston University, describes the toll his month-long ordeal with the coronavirus took on his body — and his family.
From ACM TechNews
Australians Urged to Take Up Mental Health Telehealth, Put On 'Digital Sunscreen'
Since the Australian government announced it would fast-track digital alternatives to in-person medical care, a million mental health telehealth consultations have been conducted.
From ACM TechNews
A Foolproof Way to Shrink Deep Learning Models
Researchers have proposed a new technique for compressing deep learning models.
From ACM TechNews
Privacy Threat Combines Device Identification with Biometric Information
Computer scientists have discovered a new privacy threat from electronic devices that allows cyber attackers to access and combine device identification with biometric information.
From ACM TechNews
Twitter Opens Up Data for Researchers to Study COVID-19 Tweets
Twitter will provide researchers and software developers access to a real-time dataset of daily public tweets about COVID-19, to study the virus' spread and track misinformation.
From ACM News
Body Swap
Augmented Reality systems allow you to learn by embodying an expert.
From ACM News
How My Boss Monitors Me While I Work From Home
As we shelter in place in the pandemic, more employers are using software to track our work — and us.
From ACM TechNews
Coronavirus Tracking Apps Raise Questions About Bluetooth Security
Governments and businesses intend to launch mobile applications that use Bluetooth to track coronavirus infections, but working with Bluetooth raises cybersecurity concerns.
From ACM TechNews
Yann LeCun, Yoshua Bengio: Self-Supervised Learning is Key to Human-Level Intelligence
ACM A.M. Turing Award recipients Yann LeCun and Yoshua Bengio say self-supervised learning could lead to artificial intelligence programs more humanlike in their reasoning.
From ACM TechNews
Print Your Own Laboratory-Grade Microscope for £15
Researchers have developed an open-source design that allows labs around the world to three-dimensionally print their own precision microscopes.
From ACM TechNews
Pocket-Sized Device Tests Blood Samples for Genetic Conditions
A new smartphone-powered DNA detector can identify DNA in blood, urine, and other samples, on the spot.
From ACM TechNews
Data Visualization's Breakthrough Moment in the COVID-19 Crisis
The COVID-19 crisis has spurred data visualization researchers and professionals to apply their expertise to combat the pandemic.
From ACM TechNews
'This is Certainly Different': Astronauts on Controlling the Dragon Spacecraft Via Touchscreen
The astronauts manning SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) later this month will control the capsule using a touchscreen.
From ACM News
IT is Essential. Furlough Elsewhere
IT is central to continuity and recovery and job cuts should be avoided, but there are plenty of other places savings can be made.