Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
July 2015
From ACM News
Minecraft Shows Robots How to Stop Dithering
The computer game Minecraft, which depicts a world made up of retro, pixelated blocks that can be modified and rearranged in endless architectural configurations, has been praised for teaching young players about creativity,…
From ACM TechNews
CMU Leads Google Expedition to Create Technology For 'internet of Things'
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Google are collaborating to turn the college campus into a living laboratory.
From ACM News
Nasa's Three-Billion-Mile Journey to Pluto Reaches Historic Encounter
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is at Pluto.
From ACM TechNews
Mapping Tools Show Boston's Disparity
Daniel Hartman, a Web developer for the MIT Technology Review, has used new mapping tools to provide a better view of the economic disparities in Boston.
From ACM TechNews
National Security Agency Funds c Berkeley Cybersecurity Summer Camp For High School Students
The University of California, Berkeley is hosting a camp called CY-BEAR to teach 22 high school students about cybersecurity.
From ACM TechNews
Microsoft Research: Making the Wearable Battery Last Longer By Lightening Its Load
Microsoft Research has developed WearDrive, technology designed to extend the life of batteries used to power fitness bands.
From ACM News
How Big Is Pluto? New Horizons Settles Decades-Long Debate
NASA's New Horizons mission has answered one of the most basic questions about Pluto—its size.
From ACM News
An Algorithmic Sense of Humor? Not Yet.
In recent months, artificial-intelligence researchers have made giant strides in matching human performance in all kind of tasks that had, until recently, been thought of as almost impossible for computers. Things like face and…
From ACM Opinion
The Social Security Number's Insecurities
In both the Anthem insurance hack and the two Office of Personnel Management hacks this year, attackers gained access to Social Security numbers, affecting 80 million and more than 22 million people, respectively.
From ACM TechNews
The Real Threat Posed By Powerful Computers
Computer specialists are less concerned about computers doing away with the human race than with the threat of programs rapidly overdoing a single task.
From ACM TechNews
Internet Voting Not Ready Yet, but Can Be Made More Secure
Online voting systems lack sufficient security to ensure accurate vote counts, but election officials could take steps to improve their security and transparency.
From ACM TechNews
Unc Explores Future of Transportation
University of North Carolina researchers are working with General Motors to create data for a more reliable, safe, and less expensive autonomous car.
From ACM TechNews
Collaborative Photography App Allows Smartphones to Record 'bullet Time'
Anyone can now create "bullet-time" movies using collaborative photography techniques on their smartphones.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Build First Working Memcomputer Prototype
Researchers say they have built the first working prototype of a memory-crunching computer (memcomputer).
From ACM TechNews
Study: Smartphone Use May Be Detrimental to Learning
A year-long study of first-time smartphone users by Rice University and the U.S. Air Force found users believed the devices were detrimental to their ability to learn.
From ACM TechNews
And Now, the Hopping Robot
Using three-dimensional printing, engineers at Harvard University have developed a robot that integrates rigid and soft materials and can move autonomously.
From ACM News
Moxie Marlinspike: The Coder Who Encrypted Your Texts
Dreadlocked programmer has spooked the FBI by creating a tool that police cannot crack.
From ACM News
Screen Addiction Is Taking a Toll on Children
Excessive use of computer games among young people in China appears to be taking an alarming turn and may have particular relevance for American parents whose children spend many hours a day focused on electronic screens.
From ACM TechNews
The Rapid Rise of Neural Networks and Why They'll Rule Our World
Neural network technology has advanced to the point where it underpins cutting-edge speech, text, and image-recognition systems, and scientists such as the University of Montreal's Yoshua Bengio believe the next frontier is human…
From ACM News
Nasa Missions Have Their Eyes Peeled on Pluto
What's icy, has "wobbly" potato-shaped moons, and is the world's best-known dwarf planet?
From ACM TechNews
Cutting Cost and Power Consumption For Big Data
Researchers from MIT are developing a new system that could enable flash-based servers to perform as well as RAM-based servers, but at less cost and using less energy.
From ACM TechNews
Project Jupyter Gets $6M to Expand Collaborative Data-Science Software
An open source platform known as Project Jupyter will receive $6 million in grants over three years to strengthen the tool's capabilities for collaborative data science.
From ACM TechNews
How the Audacious Pentagon Agency That Invented the Internet Is Now Trying to Save It
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is rethinking the underlying mechanisms of cybersecurity to focus on preventive measures instead of simply breach detection.
From ACM Opinion
Here Are the 12 Most Influential Programmers Working Today
The apps and games you use every day don't exist in a vacuum—someone, somewhere, wrote the code.
From ACM TechNews
IBM Researchers Try to Measure Employee Well-Being Using Technology
Researchers at IBM and the Delft University of Technology are working to develop computer systems that could help foster well-being among employees. The project is focused on creating systems that can help ensure employees are…
From ACM Opinion
There May Be Infinite niverses—and Infinite Versions of You
In another universe you might have become the president of Micronesia. Or a pauper, subsisting on ketchup.
From ACM Careers
Toss Your Manual Overboard; Augmented Reality Aims at Big Industry
For better or for worse, augmented reality (AR) is charging forward in the consumer space—but there's a place for AR in the industrial world as well.
From ACM News
Nasa's New Horizons: A 'heart' from Pluto as Flyby Begins
After a more than nine-year, three-billion-mile journey to Pluto, it's show time for NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, as the flyby sequence of science observations is officially underway.
From ACM News
Manhattan Da: Iphone Crypto Locked Out Cops 74 Time
The debate over encryption and backdoors for law enforcement has long had a surplus of opinions and a deficit of data.
From ACM TechNews
Survey: Moocs Supplement Traditional Higher Ed
Youngsters, retirees, and other non-traditional student populations have embraced massive open online courses (MOOCs), according to a new survey. Students reported taking MOOCs in topics not taught in their schools and to explore…