Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
June 2017
From ACM News
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Professor James Hendler Receives Inaugural Spotlight Award
Association of Moving Image Archivists honors Hendler for significant contributions to the field of media preservation and access.
From ACM News
How a Wireless Sensor System in the Busiest City Intersections Can Save Lives
Every city has at least one dangerous intersection where cars, trucks, and buses jostle for space with pedestrians and bicyclists, often resulting in injury, and sometimes death.
From ACM News
How a Few Yellow Dots Burned the Intercept's Nsa Leaker
When reporters at The Intercept approached the National Security Agency on June 1 to confirm a document that had been anonymously leaked to the publication in May, they handed over a copy of the document to the NSA to verify …
From ACM News
Watch Google’s Igor Markov Explain How to Avoid the AI Apocalypse
Markov suggested steps be taken to separate powerful systems and have deficiencies built in to act as a kill switch.
From ACM News
We se Big Data to Sentence Criminals. But Can the Algorithms Really Tell S What We Need to Know?
Use of data-driven risk assessments in sentencing may be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
From ACM News
An IBM Breakthrough Ensures Silicon Will Keep Shrinking
The limits of silicon have not been reached quite yet.
From ACM News
Enigma: Why the Fight to Break Nazi Encryption Still Matters
It was night when three British sailors and a 16-year-old canteen assistant boarded a sinking U-boat off the coast of Egypt.
From ACM News
Nasa's Asteroid-Hunting Spacecraft a Discovery Machine
NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) mission has released its third year of survey data, with the spacecraft discovering 97 previously unknown celestial objects in the last year. Of those, 28…
From ACM News
The Internet Is Where We Share, and Steal, the Best Ideas
In April, a photograph of Rihanna and Lupita Nyong'o taken at a Miu Miu fashion show three years ago began recirculating online.
From ACM TechNews
How Facebook ses Deep Learning Models to Engage sers
Facebook is heavily leveraging deep-learning models to further its user engagement efforts.
From ACM TechNews
Technique Pinpoints the 'partners in Crime' of Cancer Genes
Researchers at Stanford University have developed an algorithm to sift through vast datasets and identify genetic pathways for cancer.
From ACM TechNews
Connecting the Bots: Researchers Uncover Invisible Influence on Social Media
Researchers have found Twitter "bots" can be driving forces behind dialogue in social movements.
From ACM News
Leaked Nsa Report Says Russians Tried to Hack State Election Officials
A Top Secret NSA analyst's report published by The Intercept suggests that, in August 2016, the Russian General Main Staff Intelligence Directorate (GRU) hacked into an election-related hardware and software vendor in the US.
…From ACM News
First Robotics Competitions Attract Students to STEM Education
An international youth organization challenges and encourages students to stick with science, technology, engineering, and math.
From ACM News
Neuroscientists Rethink How the Brain Recognizes Faces
People can pick a familiar face out of a crowd without thinking too much about it. But how the brain actually does this has eluded researchers for years.
From ACM News
Banned From the s? There's a Robot For That
Two telepresence robots roll into a human-computer interaction conference.
From ACM TechNews
Preventing Software From Causing Injury
The Self-Report Ergonomic Assessment Tool is being designed to help develop safer software by ascertaining how much stress computer programs put on users.
From ACM TechNews
3D Models of Faces Developed By Researchers Could Help in Reconstruction Surgery
Researchers are scanning volunteers' faces to compile a database of three-dimensional computer models that could be used to aid in reconstructive surgery.
From ACM TechNews
Giving Robots a Sense of Touch
Researchers have mounted GelSight sensors on the grippers of robotic arms to provide robotic systems with greater sensitivity and dexterity.
From ACM TechNews
Virtual Reality Eases Phantom Limb Pain
A new system uses virtual reality technology to relieve sufferers of phantom limb pain.
From ACM TechNews
AI Will Be Able to Beat S at Everything By 2060, Say Experts
There is a 50% chance that machines will outperform humans in all tasks within 45 years, according to a survey of 352 artificial intelligence (AI) researchers conducted by Yale University and the University of Oxford in the U…
From ACM TechNews
Sensor Tracks Eye Movements in Real Time to Enhance Virtual Reality
A team of researchers has developed a sensor that can detect eye movements in real time using an array of electrodes.
From ACM News
Jean Sammet, Co-Designer of a Pioneering Computer Language, Dies at 89
Jean E. Sammet, an early software engineer and a designer of COBOL, a programming language that brought computing into the business mainstream, died on May 20 in Maryland.
From ACM News
Tim Berners-Lee, Inventor of the Web, Plots a Radical Overhaul of His Creation
On the better web Berners-Lee envisions, users control where their data is stored and how it's accessed.
From ACM News
Third Gravitational Wave Detection, From Black-Hole Merger 3 Billion Light Years Away
The void is rocking and rolling with invisible cataclysms.
From ACM News
Curiosity Peels Back Layers on Ancient Martian Lake
A long-lasting lake on ancient Mars provided stable environmental conditions that differed significantly from one part of the lake to another, according to a comprehensive look at findings from the first three-and-a-half years…
From ACM TechNews
Wearable System Helps Visually Impaired sers Navigate
A new system to help visually impaired users navigate employs a three-dimensional camera, a belt with vibrational motors, and a refreshable Braille interface.
From ACM TechNews
Random Numbers: Hard Times Ahead For Hackers
Researchers at the University of Geneva have developed a new random-number generator based on the principles of quantum physics.
From ACM TechNews
Robot Design For Dummies
A interactive design tool enables novices and experts to build customized legged or wheeled robots using three-dimensionally-printed components and commercially available actuators.
From ACM TechNews
Can We Quantify Machine Consciousness?
The argument that consciousness is computable--and instillable within machines--cannot be verified or refuted until a measurable theory of consciousness becomes available.