Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
September 2009
From ACM TechNews
Turing Award Winner Barbara Liskov to Keynote at Oopsla 2009
This year's ACM conference on Object-Oriented Programming Systems, Languages, and Appliances (OOPSLA 2009) will be held in Orlando, Fla., from October 25-29. OOPSLA will provide workshops, panels, tutorials, papers, posters,…
From ACM News
High Tech Help For Patients Coping with Cancer Treatment
Computers have helped doctors in the medical community for years. Now, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston are working to see if computers can help cancer patients physically and emotionally during treatment…
From ACM News
Theoretical Electrical Resistance Discovery Proven in Nanomaterials Lab
Three years ago, theoretical work of a University of Nebraska-Lincoln research group predicted a new effect that could revolutionize the field of microelectronics by allowing faster, smaller and more energy-efficient memory devices…
From ICT Results
Taming the Vast
European researchers are making an impressive effort to link up digital repositories to create a vast network of easy to search online data. The DRIVER project — one of the largest efforts of its kind — aims to make some sense…
From ACM TechNews
Project 'gaydar' Computes Orientation
Two students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) sought to determine whether online social network users were unknowingly revealing sensitive details through their virtual interaction with others, and they discovered…
From ACM TechNews
Super-Dense Data Stores Cool Down
Super-dense "millipede"-style data storage systems could be enabled to function at room temperature with the development of a material that becomes soft when placed under pressure — a baroplastic — by engineers at Korea's Pohang…
From ACM TechNews
What Traditional Academics Can Learn From a Futurist's niversity
The Singularity University program combines technology, futurism, and corporate support to question well-entrenched perspectives on learning and technology. The program has a specific focus on how technology is changing society…
From ACM TechNews
Hamburg Internet Technologists Propose Roadmap For Future Internet Design
Hamburg University of Applied Sciences computer scientists led by professor Thomas Schmidt have received a three-year grant for the Hybrid Adaptive Mobile Multicast (HAMcast) project, which seeks to develop a multiservice Internet…
From ACM TechNews
White House nveils Cloud Computing Initiative
The Obama administration has introduced a cloud computing policy that aims to lower infrastructure costs and reduce the environmental impact of government computing. Federal CIO Vivek Kundra says the plan is the administration's…
From ACM TechNews
Software and the Smartphone Will Map Research Across the World
Research from Imperial College London scientists indicates that new smartphone software will help epidemiologists and ecologists in the field analyze data remotely and map findings across the globe. The study authors also say…
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Could Save Thousands sing Xbox's Parallel Processing Capabilities
University of Warwick researcher Simon Scarle has demonstrated that an Xbox 360 chip could replace parallel processing hardware for a fraction of the cost. Scarle's original goal was to predict the emergence of cardiac arrhythmias…
From ACM TechNews
The A-Z of Programming Languages: Groovy
Groovy project manager Guillaume Laforge says the Groovy programming language was designed to make life simpler for developers through its seamless integration with the underlying Java platform. "There's really no impedance…
From ACM News
China Investigating Death of Teenager at Camp to Treat Internet Addicts
China is investigating the death of a teenager who was allegedly beaten to death in a camp designed to treat Internet addiction, state media said. Deng Senshan, 15, died Sunday (August 2), less than a day after his parents sent…
From ACM News
Making Nanowires More Electrically Stable
Nanomaterials are widely expected to be a foundation of future electronics. A key component of tomorrow's nanoelectronic circuits is stable nanowires that work reliably for a decade or more. Carmen Lilley, assistant professor…
From ACM News
Collaborators Operate Multiple Biomedical Robots from Numerous Sites
Using a new software protocol called the Interoperable Telesurgical Protocol, nine research teams from universities and research institutes around the world recently collaborated on the first successful demonstration of multiple…
From ACM News
Prone Robot Sculpture Draws Attention
Goldie, the sculpture that looks like a rusty, prone robot, lies mute on Woods Quad at the University of Alabama. Curious, delighted visitors drawn to the enchanting novelty of a dead or sleeping robot stand next to it and pose…
From ACM TechNews
Internet Pioneer Cerf rges IPv6 Migrations
Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) needs to be implemented now to enable the Internet to continue to grow, Internet pioneer Vinton Cerf said during an event at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. Available addresses…
From ACM TechNews
Google Delivers New Java-Like Language: Noop
Google has developed Noop, a new programming language that runs on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Google describes Noop as "a new language that attempts to blend the best lessons of languages old and new, while syntactically…
From ACM News
Google Acquires Recaptcha
ReCAPTCHA Inc., a spin-off of Carnegie Mellon University's Computer Science Department, has been acquired by Google Inc. The Pittsburgh company developed online puzzles that serve the dual purpose of protecting Web sites and …
From ACM TechNews
NRL Artificial Intelligence Team Win Prestigious Video Awards
Researchers at the U.S. Navy Research Laboratory's (NRL) Navy Center for Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence won two awards at the 21st International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence. The NRL team won the…
From ACM TechNews
Harris Corp. Funds Tech Internet Pop-p Security Research
Harris Corp. will fund a Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) study on the decisions people make when they see pop-up messages while Internet browsing. Researchers will use eye trackers to analyze volunteers' eye movements.…
From ACM TechNews
Advanced Fibre-to-the-Home Network Demonstrated in Irish Research Lab
The European Union-funded Photonic Integrated Extended Metro and Access Network (PIEMAN) research project aims to provide fast Internet access across Europe. The project is led by researchers from Ireland, Germany, the United…
From ACM Careers
Georgia Tech Turns nemployed Tech Workers Into Computing Teachers
Through a recent $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation, the Georgia Tech College of Computing will mitigate the stress of joblessness for unemployed information technology (IT) professionals over the next three…
From ACM News
Nsf Supported 'cake' Takes It to the Next Level
Florida Atlantic University's College of Engineering and Computer Science has received a five-year grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation to create a site for the Center for Advanced Knowledge Enablement (CAKE) to provide…
From ICT Results
European Research Plays Bit Part in Ben Hur Live
Technology developed by European researchers is helping the stage production of Ben Hur Live in London's O2 arena. It might only be a bit part, but technology developed by European researchers in the SHAPES project is playing…
From ACM TechNews
Can You Trust Crowd Wisdom?
A researcher who studied the voting patterns on Amazon.com, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), and the book review site BookCrossings says a small group of users can easily affect online recommendations. In examining hundreds…
From ACM TechNews
Accurate Predictions in a Limited Calculation Time
Computers need to automatically focus on key changes in an area in order to accurately predict air, road traffic, and water flow with computer simulations, according to Arthur van Dam, a researcher at Utrecht University in the…
From ACM TechNews
Electronics 'Missing Link' nited With Rest of the Family
Memristors were identified by Hewlett-Packard (HP) as the missing link of electronics 18 months ago, and since then the same team of HP researchers has upgraded a standard silicon chip with a layer of memristors to demonstrate…
From ACM TechNews
.s. Air Force Funds Super-Fast, Secure Computing
The U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) is supporting University of Michigan (UM) physicists' development of components for quantum computers that will enhance security for data storage and transmission on Air…
From ACM TechNews
we Launches New Center of Engineering in Croatia
The University of the West of England (UWE) and the European Union have jointly launched the Center of Mechatronics, Karlovac (CMK) in Croatia. Led by Farid Dailami and colleagues from the UWE's Bristol Institute for Technology…