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
Internet Map Questions
The U.S. stimulus package allocated up to $350 million to map out broadband Internet access in the United States for the purpose of guiding broadband expansion policies, although critics have characterized that sum as excessive…
From ACM TechNews
How Emerging Wireless Techs Are Transforming Healthcare
Heath care technology researchers are taking advantage of faster wireless networks and developing new "telehealth" sensors and devices as part of a booming new industry in health technology. ABI Research predicts that the number…
From ACM TechNews
Graphitic Memory Techniques Advance at Rice
Rice University researcher James Tour and postdoctoral associate Alexander Sinitskii used industry-standard lithographic techniques to place 10-nanometer strips of amorphous graphite onto silicon, which could lead to the creation…
From ACM News
Computers Go to Rehab, Then Back to Work
Temple University's Computer Recycling Center has recycled and rehabbed more than 27,000 computers, monitors, printers and scanners since its inception in 2003. In recognition of the CRC's groundbreaking work and commitment to…
From ACM News
Rome Is Built in a Day, with Hundreds of Thousands of Digital Photos
The ancient city of Rome was not built in a day. It took nearly a decade to build the Colosseum, and almost a century to construct St. Peter's Basilica. But now the city, including these landmarks, can be digitized in just a…
From ACM News
Social Networks Provide New Lessons in Learning
University of the People is hoping to use the power of social networks to expand education. The non-profit, California-based endeavor comes from Israeli entrepreneur Shai Reshef who says he founded the school to provide higher…
From ACM TechNews
Gestures Set to Shake p Mobile ser Interfaces
Mobile interface expert Christian Lindholm believes that mobile phones will be transformed in the next few years due to advances in fold-out screens, gesture controls, and augmented reality. Lindholm says gesture-control technology…
From ACM TechNews
Fly-By-Wireless Set For Take-Off
Aircraft manufacturers eager to reduce the weight of planes are looking into the replacement of copper wiring with wireless networks. Imbuing fly-by-wireless networks with robustness could potentially make them more reliable…
From ACM TechNews
Domain-Name Abuse Proliferates; Rogue Registrars Turn a Blind Eye
Domain name abuse continues to be a serious problem, which is too often proliferated by some registrars who are willing to overlook phony registration information or other indicators that a customer may have less than savory…
From ACM TechNews
Study Pushes the Button on Intuitive Design
Queensland University of Technology (QUT) researcher Simon Lawry plans to observe adults in their homes using everyday appliances in an effort to develop contemporary devices that are more usable for the elderly. Designing products…
From ACM News
High-Tech Manikins Educate Nurses at Clinical Simulation Lab
"I feel like I could die."
This desperate-sounding utterance from a patient would grab the attention of nurses and caregivers on any hospital floor or in any ER. But in the Clinical Simulation Lab (CSL) at the University of…From ACM News
Chinese Schools Quietly Discard Controversial Web Filter
Schools in Beijing are quietly removing the Green Dam filter, which was required for all school computers in July, due to complaints over problems with the software. "We will remove all Green Dam software from computers in the…
From ACM TechNews
Hewlett-Packard Funds Purdue Work to Develop New Teaching Model
Purdue University has received a Hewlett-Packard grant to develop and test a new teaching approach designed to improve the academic success of underrepresented minority students in engineering programs. The grant will fund Purdue's…
From ACM TechNews
Novel Way to Cool Data Centers Passes First Test
A new system that could make the cooling of data centers vastly more efficient has been tested by a team of engineers led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The engineers fed temperature readings from sensors built into…
From ACM TechNews
Digital Contacts Will Keep an Eye on Your Vital Signs
University of Washington (UW) researchers are developing a contact lens with a wirelessly powered light-emitting diode (LED) in the hope that the device can be used for augmented reality (AR) functions that include monitoring…
From ACM TechNews
Capsules for Self-Healing Circuits
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) researchers are developing a material that could enable a computer circuit to repair itself. The researchers have created capsules, filled with conductive nanotubes, which break…
From ACM TechNews
SC09 Draws Many New Faces to World's Premier Supercomputing Event
Approximately 11,000 researchers, scientists, engineers, and computing experts from around the world are expected to attend SCO9 high-performance computing (HPC) conference, which takes place Nov. 14-20 in Portland, Ore. More…
From ACM TechNews
Tech Ed: Women in It
Microsoft developer Catherine Eibner recently hosted a Women in IT workshop at the annual Microsoft Tech Ed IT Forum in Queensland, Australia. It was the first all-women workshop that Tech Ed offered and was primarily concerned…
From ACM TechNews
Virtual Maps For the Blind
BlindAid, developed by Tel Aviv University's Orly Lahav, is a new program that helps the blind navigate through unfamiliar locations. BlindAid digitally maps real-world places and, with the help of a pre-existing three-dimensional…
From ACM TechNews
Britain Apologizes After Turing Petition
British prime minister Gordon Brown apologized for the way the government treated Alan Mathison Turing after convicting the computer pioneer of gross indecency for admitting he had a sexual relationship with a man.
From ACM News
Communications Web Site Wins Best New Site Award
ACM's Web platform for its flagship publication Communications of the ACM (http://cacm.acm.org) garnered the top award for best new Web site by Media Business magazine. The magazine, published by Crain Communications Inc., announced…
From ACM News
The Wall Street Journal 2009 Technology Innovation Awards
New York-based Organic Motion Inc.'s motion-capture system that doesn't require bodysuits or markers won the computing-systems category of The Wall Street Journal 2009 Technology Innovation Award. The core of the system is technology…
From ICT Results
On the Road to Secure Car-to-Car Communications
A European research project works out how to keep car-to-car data transmissions private and secure from malicious hackers.
From ACM TechNews
Can Video Game Testing Spark Interest in Computing Among Black Youth?
Betsy DiSalvo with Georgia Tech's College of Computing is betting that young African American males' interest in video games can be tapped to generate a greater interest in computer science, and to that end she and her colleagues…
From ACM TechNews
Nsf Grant Supports Distributed Mobile Apps Management
Williams College will conduct research into managing distributed applications on mobile computing platforms that make use of cell phones, vehicles, and embedded sensors. Computer science professor Jeannie Albrecht will head…
From ACM TechNews
Research Project Limits Computer Power Consumption
A new scheduling algorithm developed by researchers at the University of Sydney promises to cut the energy consumption of processors in data centers by more than half without disrupting operations. Young Choon Lee and Albert…
From ACM TechNews
Role For Robots: Helping Elderly at Home
Three University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) engineers and a Rush University nursing specialist have been awarded a three-year, $989,000 National Science Foundation grant to develop robots that can help care for the elderly…
From ACM TechNews
Computer Scientists Win Morpho Challenge 2009
University of Bristol computer scientists have won the Morpho Challenge, an international science competition financed by the European Union through its PASCAL Network of Excellence. The contest promotes the development of computer…
From ACM TechNews
Stimulus Funds to Further Cyber Security Research
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will fund a project designed to protect the privacy and security of business information systems and data centers from cyberattacks. More than $1 million will be awarded over…
From ACM TechNews
Smart Sensors Power Interaction
More than 70 demonstrations of interactive technologies that use sensors for a wide range of applications were showcased at the Human Computer Interaction conference's Open House Festival in Britain.