Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
August 2017
From ACM TechNews
Breakthrough Could Make Quantum Data Transmission a Reality
Researchers have relayed a quantum-secured message containing multiple bits of information for each photon through the air above a city.
From ACM TechNews
Revolutionary Approach Brings 3D Sound Into the Living Room
Researchers have developed the Media Device Orchestration concept, which helps create a three-dimensional audio experience using common home devices.
From ACM TechNews
Teaching Robots to Learn Teaches the Students Too
Researchers have developed a way for high school students and first-year engineering students to learn robot intelligence technologies.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Built an Invisible Backdoor to Hack Ai's Decisions
Researchers demonstrated a cyberattack against artificial intelligence that controls driverless cars and image-recognition systems by installing an invisible backdoor in the software.
From ACM TechNews
Cryptographers and Geneticists nite to Analyze Genomes They Can't See
Stanford University cryptographer Dan Boneh and geneticist Gill Bejerano have developed a secure multiparty computation algorithm to discover disease-linked genetic mutations.
From ACM TechNews
How Machine Learning Could Help to Improve Climate Forecasts
Researchers are combining artificial intelligence and climate science to create deep-learning analyses of weather patterns.
From ACM News
Collection of Letters By Codebreaker Alan Turing Found in Filing Cabinet
The correspondence, dating from 1949 to 1954, was found by an academic in a storeroom at the University of Manchester.
From ACM News
For Astronomers, a Neutron Star Merger Could Eclipse the Eclipse
Late last week, as some staff astronomers embarked on trips to see Monday's solar eclipse, two of NASA's space-based observatories—Hubble and Chandra X-ray—and at least two land-based telescopes scrambled to capture a far more…
From ACM News
How Machine Learning Could Help to Improve Climate Forecasts
As Earth-observing satellites become more plentiful and climate models more powerful, researchers who study global warming are facing a deluge of data.
From ACM News
World's First Exascale Supercomputer Will Help Boost China's Growing Sea Power
China is planning to boost its computing power tenfold within a couple of years by building the world's first exascale computer with a dedicated mission of helping China's maritime expansion.
From ACM TechNews
Why AI Visionary Andrew Ng Teaches Humans to Teach Computers
Stanford University professor Andrew Ng's current area of concentration is teaching next-generation artificial intelligence specialists to train computers.
From ACM TechNews
Major Leap Towards Storing Data at the Molecular Level
Researchers at the University of Manchester proved that data storage is possible in individual molecules at -213 degrees Celsius, which is extremely close to the temperature of liquid nitrogen.
From ACM TechNews
Nsf Announces $17.7m in Awards For Cross-Disciplinary Data Sciences Projects
The U.S. National Science Foundation will allocate $17.7 million to fund 12 Transdisciplinary Research in Principles of Data Science projects that support research and training activities that go beyond disciplinary boundaries…
From ACM TechNews
Secret Chips in Replacement Parts Can Completely Hijack Your Phone's Security
Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel warn smartphone security can be compromised by repair shops that install replacement parts containing secret, malicious hardware.
From ACM News
With the Uss mccain Collision, Even Navy Tech Can't Overcome Human Shortcomings
In the darkness of early morning on August 21, the guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain collided with a tanker in the Strait of Malacca off Singapore.
From ACM Opinion
Blossom: A Handmade Approach to Social Robotics from Cornell and Google
As excited as we are about the forthcoming generation of social home robots (including Jibo, Kuri, and many others), it's hard to ignore the fact that most of them look somewhat similar.
From ACM News
Ultra-Small Antennas Point Way to Miniature Brain Implants
Metal antennas that send and receive TV signals and radio waves could soon be replaced by tiny films up to one hundred times smaller, scientists say.
From ACM TechNews
Microsoft Claims New Speech Recognition Record, Achieving a Superhuman 5.1% Error Rate
Microsoft's Artificial Intelligence and Research Group says it has achieved a 5.1% error rate for its speech-recognition technology.
From ACM TechNews
A Good Read: AI Evaluates Quality of Short Stories
Researchers say they have developed neural networks that assess short narratives to predict which stories will appeal to large audiences.
From ACM TechNews
Study Finds 'modest Correlation' Between Journalists' Social Networks and Ideology of Their News Content
Researchers at Northeastern University say they have found a "modest correlation" between journalists' Twitter networks and the ideological aspects of their news content.
From ACM TechNews
ta Researchers Developing Airborne Network Computing Platform For avs
Researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington have received a grant to develop a networked airborne computing platform for multiple unmanned aerial vehicles.
From ACM News
Robot the Musical
Artificial intelligence promises to change aspects of music ranging from rock concerts to advertising jingles.
From ACM Careers
Inside Waymo's Secret World For Training Self-Driving Cars
In a corner of Alphabet's campus, there is a team working on a piece of software that may be the key to self-driving cars.
From ACM News
Intelligence and the Dna Revolution
More than 60 years ago, Francis Crick and James Watson discovered the double-helical structure of deoxyribonucleic acid—better known as DNA. Today, for the cost of a Netflix subscription, you can have your DNA sequenced to learn…
From ACM News
Biocomputer and Memory Built Inside Living Bacteria
From ACM TechNews
Time's Running Out to Prevent a Massive Cyberattack on Critical Infrastructure
The U.S. National Infrastructure Advisory Council warns there is a shrinking window of opportunity to fortify critical U.S. infrastructure against a massive "9/11-level cyberattack."
From ACM TechNews
Teaching Kids Coding, By the Book
Girls Who Code has arranged a deal with Penguin to release 13 books over the next two years.
From ACM TechNews
Animation Made Easy
New software makes it easier to animate characters.
From ACM TechNews
Meet Mappy, a Software System That Automatically Maps Old-School Nintendo Games
Mappy is a new software system that can autonomously generate maps of a video game's levels.
From ACM TechNews
Computer Approaches Human Skill For First Time in Brain Challenge
Researchers say they have developed an algorithm that can map brain neural networks with close to human-level accuracy.