Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
July 2017
From ACM News
When Cars Fly
The idea of personal air vehicles has been around for decades. Now the concept is taking off.
From ACM News
The Strange Topology That Is Reshaping Physics
Charles Kane never thought he would be cavorting with topologists. "I don't think like a mathematician," admits Kane, a theoretical physicist who has tended to focus on tangible problems about solid materials.
From ACM News
DARPA Wants Brain Implants That Record From 1 Million Neurons
DARPA is known for issuing big challenges. Still, the mission statement for its new Neural Engineering Systems Design program is a doozy: Make neural implants that can record high-fidelity signals from 1 million neurons.
From ACM TechNews
Beauty Spot or Landscape Blot? Computer Trained to Judge Scenery
New software that can differentiate scenic views from blots on the landscape.
From ACM TechNews
The 2017 Top Programming Languages
Python is now the top programming language, according to IEEE Spectrum's recently released fourth interactive ranking of the leading languages.
From ACM TechNews
At Cybersecurity Camps, Teen Girls Learn About Protecting Nation, Breaking Barriers
A growing number of cybersecurity camps are helping to prepare young women to work in this field, as women remain underrepresented in the information security workforce worldwide.
From ACM TechNews
Fused Imaging Reveals Sixth-Century Writing Hidden Inside Bookbinding
Northwestern University researchers say they have developed a new, non-destructive technology that reveals medieval texts hidden inside of ancient bookbindings.
From ACM TechNews
Research Makes Robots Better at Following Spoken Instructions
Researchers at Brown University have developed a system designed to help robots better follow spoken instructions.
From ACM TechNews
Automated Security Kiosk Could Alleviate Travel, Border Woes
Nathan Twyman at the Missouri University of Science and Technology has created an automated screening kiosk to enhance safety at airports and border crossings.
From ACM News
How The Military Is Altering the Limits of Human Performance
Imagine a group of volunteers, their chests rigged with biophysical sensors, preparing for a mission in a military office building outfitted with cameras and microphones to capture everything they do.
From ACM News
Milner Award and Lecture
From ACM News
Satellite Snafu Masked True Sea-Level Rise For Decades
The numbers didn't add up. Even as Earth grew warmer and glaciers and ice sheets thawed, decades of satellite data seemed to show that the rate of sea-level rise was holding steady—or even declining.
From ACM TechNews
Twitter Data Changing Future of Population Research
Researchers have collected more than 30 terabytes of geo-tagged tweets as part of a project they say could change the landscape of population research.
From ACM TechNews
Code @ Tacc Robotics Camp Delivers on Self-Driving Cars
The Texas Advanced Computing Center last month hosted a week-long summer camp during which 34 students received instruction from five staff scientists and two guest high school teachers.
From ACM TechNews
Detecting Long-Term Concussion in Athletes
Researchers recently conducted a study examining the brains of athletes who had suffered concussions, and comparing them to athletes who had not suffered concussions.
From ACM News
Pocket Brains: Neuromorphic Hardware Arrives For Our Brain-Inspired Algorithms
As the world's great companies pursue autonomous cars, they're essentially spending billions of dollars to get machines to do what your average two-year-old can do without thinking—identify what they see.
From ACM News
AI Coach Will Train Hopeless Chatbots to Pass the Turing Test
"I can't define obscenity, but I know it when I see it." US Justice Potter Stewart's famous turn of phrase could also be an apt description of the Turing test, our judgment of whether an AI seems convincingly human.
From ACM News
Technology That Could Revolutionize Banking
The Ripple cryptocurrency is being used by global banks to speed cross-border payments.
From ACM News
A Computer Science Legacy Extends 70 Years
Valerie Barr has been selected the first person to hold the Jean E. Sammet Chair in Computer Science at Mount Holyoke College.
From ACM News
How Can We Stop Algorithms Telling Lies?
Algorithms can dictate whether you get a mortgage or how much you pay for insurance. But sometimes they're wrong – and sometimes they are designed to deceive.
From ACM News
In Memoriam: Charles W. Bachman 1924-2017
An engineer was best known for his work in database management systems, and in techniques of layered architecture that include Bachman diagrams.
From ACM News
The Search For the Solar System's Most Likely Place For Life
Chris McKay has fallen out of love with Mars. The red, dusty, corroded world no longer holds the allure it once did.
From ACM News
New Nasa Tech Kills Trespassing Drones Without Touching Them
In the most nightmarish drone scenarios, one of the little whirlybirds flies into an airliner, or wanders into military airspace, or swoops down on the White House.
From ACM TechNews
Machines Will Soon Be Able to Imitate Human Moral Behavior
A recent study highlights the feasibility of incorporating human moral decision-making into machines.
From ACM TechNews
After Visa Delays, Afghan Girls' Robotics Team Arrives in D.c. For Global Competition
U.S. President Donald J. Trump had to intervene to allow a team of teenage Afghani girls trying to enter the FIRST Global Robotics Challenge to enter the U.S.
From ACM TechNews
Wheelchairs Get Robotic Retrofit to Become Self-Driving
Researchers have used sensors and artificial intelligence to create self-driving electric wheelchairs.
From ACM TechNews
This Deep Learning AI Generated Thousands of Creepy Cat Pictures
The Meow Generator is a collection of machine-learning algorithms that have created more than 15,000 disturbing cat faces.
From ACM TechNews
Watch 3-D Movies at Home, Sans Glasses
"Home3D" allows users to watch three-dimensional movies without wearing special glasses.
From ACM TechNews
Drones Get to Grips With Planning the Delivery of Goods
Researchers at the University of Klagenfurt in Austria are developing a system in which customers order products that can be delivered via drones.
From ACM News
Nasa Video Soars Over Pluto's Majestic Mountains and Icy Plains
In July 2015, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft sent home the first close-up pictures of Pluto and its moons – amazing imagery that inspired many to wonder what a flight over the distant worlds' icy terrain might be like.