Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
June 2009
From ACM TechNews
Department Tackles Visa Delay for Researchers
The U.S. State Department has added workers and developed new procedures in an attempt to speed up the visa process for foreign graduate students and post-doctoral researchers. The backlog of applications for obtaining or renewing…
From ACM News
Privacy Study Shows Google's Eyes Are Everywhere
A U.C. Berkeley report shows that most Internet users don't understand Web site privacy policies, and that major online businesses like Google Inc. freely gather data and share it with affiliated businesses via loopholes in those…
From ACM News
Dr. Telle Whitney Receives Eda Achievement Award
Dr. Telle Whitney, president and CEO of the Anita Borg Institute, is the recipient of the Tenth Annual Marie R. Pistilli Women in Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Achievement Award. The award honors Whitney for her extensive…
From ACM TechNews
Black Hole Simulation Wins First Prize at International Competition
A team from the Louisiana State University (LSU) Center for Computation and Technology (CCT) won the top prize at the recent SCALE 2009 challenge. The grid-computing competition, held in Shanghai, China, involved the demonstration…
From ACM News
Phonecams May Help Scientists Hunt for Martians
Using phone cameras, scientists can one day hunt for Martian life, by looking for organic matter that could indicate life. According to a report in New Scientist, research with this type of technology is already underway at the…
From ACM News
Alliance Formed to Push Development and Adoption of Open Source in Asia
Ten Open Source Software Centers and related promotion organizations in Asian countries and regions today announced the formation of Asian Open Source Software Center (AOSSC) alliance/network to further promote the adoption,…
From ICT Results
System Finds Safe, Efficient Routes for Dangerous Goods
A new routing and monitoring system developed by European researchers for trucks carrying dangerous goods promises to make Europe’s roads safer while saving haulers time and money.
From ACM TechNews
Atom Pinhole Camera Acts as a Shrinking Copy Machine
Scientists from the Institute of Spectroscopy at the Russian Academy of Sciences have developed a method of nanofabrication that uses an atom pinhole camera to create nanometer-sized copies of micrometer-sized objects. The researchers…
From ACM TechNews
French Physicists Claim Breakthrough in ltra-Fast Data Access
Superfast lasers could potentially be used to make storage and retrieval of data on hard disks up to 100,000 times faster, according to French physicists. A team led by Jean-Yves Bigot of the Institute of Materials Physics and…
From ACM TechNews
Google's Global Policy Head Said to Join Obama Administration
Andrew McLaughlin is leaving his post as head of Google's global public policy division to become deputy technology officer for the Obama administration. McLaughlin, who worked from 1999 to 2002 to help found ICANN, was Google's…
From ACM TechNews
Instant Sex Change Served p By Video Software
Software developed by University of East Anglia computer scientist Barry-John Theobald and Weta Digital's Iain Matthews can take a live video feed of a person talking and make them look and sound like someone else. Psychologists…
From ACM TechNews
The Future of Touch
Next-generation touch technology currently in development promises to boast greater user-friendliness and intuitiveness, with Amtel's Chris Ard noting that "all the work is on improving the speed of devices, the reliability,…
From ACM Careers
Report Finds Large Gender Gap in Teen Ratings of Computing as a Career
An interim report issued by ACM and the WGBH Educational Foundation confirms a significant gender gap among college-bound students in their opinions of computing as a possible college major or career. The research found that…
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Simulate Sounds of Water and Other Liquids
Cornell University computer science researchers have developed new algorithms to simulate the sounds of water to correspond with images. Cornell professor Doug James and graduate student Changxi Zheng will present their research…
From ACM News
Microsoft's Project Natal: What Does It Mean For Game Industry?
Microsoft stunned the video game world on Monday with the announcement of its forthcoming "Project Natal" technology, full-body motion-sensitive technology that should allow gamers to do what they want without holding on to any…
From ACM TechNews
Hi-Tech Clothes to Help Elderly
Researchers in the University of Ulster's New Dynamics of Ageing Program are exploring the use of technology-enhanced clothing to improve the lives of older citizens. "This project is particularly exciting as we will be working…
From ACM TechNews
NIST Delivers pdated Draft Standards for Electronic Voting Machines
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently provided the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) with a draft revision to the 2005 U.S. federal Voluntary Voting System Guidelines Version 1.0, specifying how…
From ACM News
Pc Touch Screens Moving Beyond Mere Curiosity
The computer industry has a lot riding on your fingers. Companies have dabbled with the touch-screen technology for years. Apple elevated such technology from a novelty to a must-have feature on mobile devices with its iPhone…
From ACM News
Google Explores 'eyes-Free' Phones
The screens on many mobile phones can leave a user feeling distinctly vision impaired, especially if her attention is divided between tapping virtual buttons and walking or driving. Fortunately, engineers at Google are experimenting…
From ACM News
Video Games Help Doctors View Ct and Mri Images
The popular Nintendo Wii video game system is helping radiology students reach new levels! Faculty from Weill Cornell Medical College have coupled the motion-sensitive Wii remote with the same computers used to analyze scans,…
From ACM News
Dramatic Increase in Number of Acute Computer-Related Injuries
The number of acute injuries associated with computers is on the rise. Over the past two decades, the number of U.S. households with at least one computer has increased. While other studies have documented chronic conditions…
From ACM TechNews
Iphone The Work Tool For Sustainable Factories of the Future
The European Union-backed MyCar project is a collaborative effort involving Sweden's Chalmers University of Technology and the Volvo Group that is developing manufacturing assistance tools based on the iPhone. "In assembly work…
From ACM TechNews
How a Team of Academic Experts Contributed to Obama's Cyberspace Review
The National Security Council's Melissa Hathaway sought the advice of a variety of computer security experts when she conducted the recently completed 60-day review of the U.S.'s cyberspace policy. The National Science Foundation…
From ACM TechNews
The Next Frontier: Decoding the Internet's Raw Data
The massive amounts of data available on the Internet potentially have infinite uses. For example, advertisers want to mine photos and status updates on social networks to better sell products, while scientists are tracking…
From ACM TechNews
Obama Outlines Coordinated Cyber-Security Plan
U.S. President Barack Obama announced that the country's disjointed efforts to "deter, prevent, detect, and defend" against cyberattacks will now be run by the White House, though he promised that he will prohibit the federal…
From ACM TechNews
Toward Cheap nderwater Sensor Nets
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego's (UCSD's) Jacobs School of Engineering recently presented a paper highlighting the energy conservation benefits of using low-cost reconfigurable hardware for their experimental…
From ACM News
Contractors Vie For Plum Work, Hacking For U.s.
The U.S. government’s urgent push into cyberwarfare has set off a rush among the biggest military companies for billions of dollars in new defense contracts. The exotic nature of the work, coupled with the deep recession, is…
From ACM TechNews
Robots Rolling Toward Farm Revolution
Carnegie Mellon University roboticist Tony Stentz says that in the near future the farming industry may undergo a significant change as robotic farmhands become a reality. Robots could help solve growing concerns in the developed…
From ACM News
Canadian Program Woos India's Brightest
Some of the sharpest young minds from India have taken up residence at British Columbia universities as part of an unusual program intended to woo international students and boost Canada's reputation as an education destination…
From ACM TechNews
Teaching Computers to Recognize
European researchers working on the Cognitive-Level Annotation Using Latent Statistical Structure (CLASS) project are developing visualization technologies capable of recognizing both specific objects and classes of objects.…