The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
In mid-June, a single-turbine helicopter took off from a test field in Mesa, Arizona, avoided obstacles in-flight, scoped out a landing site and landed safely. It’s the kind of flight choppers have made tens of thousands of times…
Wall Street is notorious for not learning from its mistakes. Maybe machines can do better.
Carnegie Mellon University has launched Fostering Innovation through Robotics Exploration (FIRE), a new initiative that will leverage students' interest in robots to increase U.S. enrollment in computer science majors.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' quarterly current population survey report shows that IT employment rose an estimated 5 percent during the second quarter, the first significant quarterly growth since late 2008.
The University of Southampton's School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) recently became the United Kingdom's first university department to release all of its public data in an open, linked data format.
Although a lot of artificial intelligence (AI) research has moved away from robotics and into creating algorithms for business intelligence, finance, the Web, and other uses, robotics research has begun to make a comeback.
Palo Alto Research Center researchers led by Eugene Chow have developed a technique involving microscale springs that make computer chips more reliable and less wasteful.
Stony Brook University received a $1.4 million National Science Foundation grant to build what its creator described as the closest thing in the world to Star Trek's "holodeck."
Researchers from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have demonstrated that small quantities of graphene can dramatically improve the power and cycling stability of lithium-ion batteries, while maintaining high energy storage…
More than $2 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy will strengthen nuclear research and education, and help develop the next generation of nuclear technology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Computing experts from the University of Essex, Imperial College, and the University of Bradford are working to make artificial intelligence smarter, which will make it easier to use and more adaptable for game programmers.
A group of scientists at Nanjing University in China have shown how a rather wide spectrum of light—a rainbow of radiation—can be trapped in a single structure.
What we perceive in the world is highly influenced by what we are looking for. Now European researchers have used this theory to create a convincing and engaging 'mixed reality,' and they have put together a cookbook so others…
North Carolina State University researchers have developed a system that will enable large-scale, computer-hosting infrastructure providers to more accurately predict anomalies and address them before they become major problems…
A leading Chinese Internet regulator has vowed to reduce anonymity in China's portion of cyberspace, calling for requirements that people use their real names when buying a mobile phone or going online, according to a human rights…
After social networking, blogging, micro blogging comes a new phenomenon called voice blogging. It indeed is what you think it is. It is a voice blogging service offered for mobile users.
Green Dam, the company behind the controversial mandate to install filtering software on every computer in China, has closed its Beijing office and is running out of money.
A breakthrough in remote wave sensing by a team from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute opens the way for detecting hidden explosives, chemical or biological agents, and illegal drugs from a distance of 20 meters.
Google is bringing Android software development to the masses. The company will offer a software tool, starting Monday, that is intended to make it easy for people to write applications for its Android smartphones.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today issued the final guidelines that will determine how doctors, hospitals and other medical care facilities can qualify for reimbursements by rolling out electronic medical…
Cybercriminals are increasingly using SEO to trick computer users into visiting malicious websites, according to security researchers. In one tactic, cybercriminals insert certain keywords into articles in hope of making the…
Java/J2EE has become the most difficult skill set and position to fill, according to a new Dice.com survey. Java development has supplanted IT security and virtualization, which were first and second on the top 10 list a year…
For better or worse, search engines have become the gateway to the Web. They help users to find information, advertisers to sell products—they even help hackers in their shady pursuits. So they are also the focus of intense research…
One of the first Web sites loaded on Silicon Valley’s laptops and iPhones each morning—and then again and again throughout the day—is Techmeme.
Today, Microsoft Research and NASA are providing an entirely new experience to users of the WorldWide Telescope, which will allow visitors to interact with and explore our solar system like never before.
In a prelude to overhauling its regulatory oversight of genetic diagnostic testing, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will convene a public meeting next week to gather input from test makers and others.
When Danny Hillis spent a day watching a top surgeon perform keyhole cancer surgery, he was left both exhilarated and depressed. The clinical precision with which the surgeon opened up the patient, used state-of-the-art robotic…
Studsat, a tiny satellite that was built by 35 students belonging to four engineering colleges in Bangalore and three in Hyderabad, was put in orbit on Monday (July 12).
Elke Rundensteiner, professor of computer science at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, has been selected to participate in the HP Labs Innovation Research Program, which provides opportunities to conduct breakthrough collaborative…
Oxford University researchers are developing autonomous vehicle technology that enables drivers to check their email while the car drives itself.