Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
August 2019
From ACM News
New York City’s first self-driving shuttle service launches today
Six autonomous six-seater shuttles will be offering free rides around a one-mile loop of New York's Brooklyn Navy Yard.
From ACM News
What the Machine Learning Value Chain Means for Geopolitics
Artificial intelligence has become a major source of economic value, contributing as much as $2 trillion to today's global economy. Sophisticated machine learning technology is driving this growth, but not everyone is investing…
From ACM News
Digital Twins Grow Up
The idea of creating digital twins to simulate real-world systems isn't new, but the concept is advancing rapidly.
From ACM News
A Breakthrough in Explainable AI
Researchers create an artificial intelligence agent that explains its reasoning.
From ACM News
Keeping Up With the Phone Hackers
The growing challenges to digital phone forensics.
From ACM TechNews
How Hospitals Are Using AI to Save Their Sickest Patients, Curb 'Alarm Fatigue'
Intensive care units are using artificial intelligence to save patients by helping staff respond faster.
From ACM TechNews
Julia: Come for the Syntax, Stay for the Speed
The open-source Julia language combines the speed of "compiled" languages such as Fortran and C with the interactivity and syntax of "scripting" languages such as Python, Matlab, and R.
From ACM TechNews
Smartphone Virus Scanner Is Not What You Think
A new smartphone virus scanner could help medical professionals track the spread of diseases.
From ACM News
In Search of a CRISPR Kill Switch
The benefits of genetic engineering tool CRISPR have been widely discussed. But what if something goes wrong?
From ACM TechNews
U.S. Issues Hacking Security Alert for Small Planes
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has issued a security advisory for small planes warning of a hacking exploit if someone physically accesses the aircraft.
From ACM TechNews
Stretchy Wearable Patch Allows Two-Way Communication with Robots
University of Houston researchers have developed a flexible wearable electronics patch that translates the wearer's movements and other instructions to a robot.
From ACM TechNews
CS Undergrads Most Likely to Drop Out
Researchers in the U.K. have found that 9.8% of computer science undergraduates dropped out before completing their degree.
From ACM TechNews
Novel Process to Study How Trees Affect Building Temperatures, Air Flow in Extreme Heat
Iowa State University researchers created a computational model to assess how tree shading and air flow affects building temperature in extreme heat.
From ACM TechNews
And Now, a Bicycle Built for None
Researchers from Tsinghua University in China have developed a self-driving bicycle.
From ACM News
I’m a Data Scientist Who is Skeptical About Data
"What does the data say?"
From ACM News
Americans Have Become Much Less Positive About Tech Companies’ Impact on the U.S.
Recent Pew Research Center surveys have found that the public has a number of criticisms of technology and social media companies.
From ACM News
The Woman Who Taught Computers to Speak English
Curiosity often breeds innovation, which was precisely the case with Grace Murray Hopper.
From ACM TechNews
Northeastern University Launches National Program to Boost Number of Women Majoring in Computing
Northeastern University hopes to improve women's representation in technology with its newly established Center for Inclusive Computing.
From ACM TechNews
How Can You Reliably Spot a Fake Smile? Ask a Computer
Researchers have developed software that can identify false facial expressions.
From ACM TechNews
Facebook Gets Closer to Letting You Type With Your Mind
Facebook is collaborating with academia to develop a non-invasive technique to type words onto a computer directly from a user's brain.
From ACM TechNews
Hackers Could Use Connected Cars to Gridlock Whole Cities
Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have determined that hackers could target Internet-connected cars and freeze traffic, creating extremely disruptive gridlock in major cities.
From ACM TechNews
Facial Recognition Tech Comes to Schools, Summer Camps
Schools and summer camps throughout the U.S. are using facial recognition to bolster security and provide other services for campers and parents.
From ACM TechNews
VR to Solve Personal Problems
Researchers used immersive virtual reality to study the effects of people talking to themselves as if they were another person.
From ACM TechNews
Learning to Look
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute have developed an algorithm that could improve the accuracy of searches in microbial and metagenomic databases.
From ACM TechNews
Australia's Fastest Ever Supercomputer to Go Live in November
Fujitsu Australia will upgrade the power of Australia's fastest computer 10-fold by November.
From ACM TechNews
Mobile Malware Attacks are Booming in 2019: These are the Most Common Threats
Malware attacks against mobile devices, especially Android handsets, have ballooned this year.
From ACM News
Toby Walsh, A.I. Expert, Is Racing to Stop the Killer Robots
Autonomous weapons, capable of acting without human oversight, are closer than we think, Walsh believes, and must be banned.
From Communications of the ACM
What Makes a Robot Likable?
Interactions with robotics teach us more about people.
From Communications of the ACM
I Don't Understand My Car
Self-driving cars will need good communication skills.
From Communications of the ACM
The Algorithm That Changed Quantum Machine Learning
A college student discovered a classical computing algorithm that experts overlooked. It promises to change both classical and quantum machine learning.