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
Nationwide Research Network Will Expand Supercomputer Capabilities
Indiana University (IU) researchers will lead a four-year, $15 million National Science Foundation project to develop software to connect future supercomputers and enable new approaches for scientific research on massively large…
From ACM News
Purdue Receives $105 Million to Lead National Earthquake Engineering Network
The U.S. National Science Foundation awarded $105 million to a Purdue-led team to spearhead a center that will serve as headquarters for the operations of the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation…
From ACM News
Artificial Intelligence Helps Diagnose Cardiac Infections
Mayo Clinic researchers say that "teachable software" designed to mimic the human brain may help them diagnose cardiac infections without an invasive exam. The software program, called an "artificial neural network" (ANN), mimics…
From ACM TechNews
Catching Fake Meds in a Snapshot
New York University researchers have proposed Epothecary, a system that uses cell phones to authenticate and track drugs distributed in the developing world. The system reads two-dimensional (2D) bar codes on drug packages and…
From ICT Results
How Do You Say Grid Computing in Spanish?
Encouraged by the success of grid computing in Europe, scientists there set out to help their Latin American colleagues develop grid capability. The result today is a thriving trans-Atlantic collaboration.The EELA project (E…
From ACM TechNews
Internet Address Run-Out: Is It Time to Panic?
Most Internet-based estimates show that IPv4 addresses are scheduled to run out by July 22, 2011. However, researcher Stephan Lagerholm has come up with an earlier estimated date of January 10, 2011.
From ACM TechNews
Nsf Awards a Petascale Computing Grant to Study Turbulent Clouds
University of Delaware National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) scientists have received a $1,064,500 grant from the National Science Foundation to conduct research on multiscale modeling of turbulent clouds through petascale…
From ACM TechNews
Lobsters Teach Robots Magnetic Mapping Trick
Computer scientist Janne Haverinen reports that a small wheeled robot was able to use a magnetic map to determine where it was in a hospital and move along a corridor without a vision system. The concept was inspired by the…
From ACM TechNews
Group of Microsoft Rivals Nears Patent Deal in Bid to Protect Linux
The Open Invention Network (OIN), which includes major corporate supporters of open source software, is close to an agreement to purchase 22 patents involving Linux that were once held by Microsoft. The patents are currently…
From ACM News
A Turing Test For Computer Game Bots
Can a computer fool expert gamers into believing it's one of them? That was the question posed at the second annual BotPrize, a three-month contest that concluded Thursday (Sept. 10) at the IEEE Computational Symposium on Intelligence…
From ACM News
Machines Still Way Behind Humans in Image Recognition
Computers can copy many aspects of human behavior, but they don't yet possess our ability to recognize distorted images, says a team of researchers. "Our goal is to seek a better understanding of the fundamental differences between…
From ACM News
Computer Games Make You More Efficient at Work
The Volvo Group has developed a computer game to teach the principles of lean production, a concept designed to increase the efficiency of working processes. In this game, the players can see how different changes impact efficiency…
From ACM TechNews
New Microprocessor Runs on Thin Air
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor researchers Minsoung Rhee and Mark Burns have developed a series of channels and valves that process binary signals by sucking air out of tubes to represent a 0, and filling tubes to represent…
From ACM TechNews
Open-Source Camera Could Revolutionize Digital Photography
The Frankencamera is an open source device developed by Stanford University researchers that will enable programmers to change the camera's features and support new possibilities for digital photography. "The premise of the…
From ACM TechNews
Arkansas Receives $3.3 Million Grant From National Science Foundation
The University of Arkansas has received a $3.3 million National Science Foundation grant to build and support a cyberinfrastructure and to train students and workers in information technology (IT) systems, tools, and services…
From ACM TechNews
Mobile Phones Are Key to Learning of the Future
In a speech entitled "Learning in a Technology Enhanced World," Open University of the Netherlands professor Marcus Specht will argue that mobile phones are one of the most important learning tools today. Specht's speech is…
From ACM TechNews
Computer Science Lacks Women, Minorities
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that few students are enrolling in computer science courses, particularly women and minorities. The BLS ranks computer application software engineering as the fourth most in-demand…
From ACM TechNews
Bio-Computing Day Planned For Sc09
Biologist Leroy Hood will be the plenary speaker for the 22nd annual SCO9 conference, which takes place Nov. 14-20, in Portland, Ore. Hood, president and co-founder of the Institute for Systems Biology, will discuss predictive…
From ACM TechNews
European Project Will Raise Interest in Scientific Study
Eight European universities, including the Technical University of Madrid, are participating in the European DynaLearn Project, which is designed to increase student interest in scientific subjects by fostering an interactive…
From ACM News
Electrical Circuit Runs Entirely Off Power in Trees
You've heard about flower power. What about tree power? It turns out that it's there, in small but measurable quantities. There's enough power in trees for University of Washington researchers to run an electronic circuit, according…
From ACM News
Iit Kharagpur Receives Charles Babbage Grant
Synopsys Inc. announced Wednesday (Sept. 9) that the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur is the first institution of higher education in India to receive the Charles Babbage Grant from Synopsys. Through the grant, IIT Kharagpur…
From ACM News
Powerful Supercomputers Boost .s. Weather Forecasts
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has completed implementation of the final phase of a nine year, $180 million contract by installing the newest generation of IBM supercomputers for weather and climate…
From ACM TechNews
Computer Models Aim to Classify, Help Reduce Injury Accidents
Researchers at Purdue University and the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety are developing computer models to search through the thousands of injury reports filed in large medical or insurance claims datasets to automatically…
From ACM TechNews
Grant to Improve Monitoring of Computers Should Increase Reliability
University of Illinois at Chicago professor Prasid Sistla has received a three-year, $485,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to develop techniques for monitoring software in order to prevent it from crashing. Sistla…
From ACM TechNews
Empathy in the Virtual World
Professor G. Anthony Gorry of Rice University's Center for Technology in Teaching and Learning is concerned that our empathy toward other people — and our ability to care for each other — is being corroded by prolonged exposure…
From ACM News
Bio-Nano Device Could Lead to Better Electronics
If manmade devices could be combined with biological machines, laptops and other electronic devices could get a boost in operating efficiency. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers have devised a versatile hybrid…
From ACM News
IBM Japan Giving niversities Taste of Cloud Computing
IBM Japan Ltd. is accelerating the proliferation of cloud computing at universities as part of a global strategy by parent company IBM Corp. aimed at attracting engineers and students as future customers. On Monday (Sept. 7),…
From ACM News
Searching For Chinese Start-ps
Google Inc.'s newly departed China chief outlined his plans for a technology-incubation company, capitalized with $115 million from several prominent backers. Kai-Fu Lee told reporters Monday (Sept. 7) that he hopes his new investment…
From ICT Results
How Belief Makes European E-Infrastructure Real
Europe has turned its early belief and investment in the potential of e-Infrastructures and virtual research into a position of strength, especially in e-Science and grid technology, such as the GÉANT network dedicated to research…
From ACM TechNews
Quantum Computer Slips Onto Chips
A silicon chip about the size of a penny that uses photons to run Shor's algorithm has been developed by a team of researchers at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. Up to now, laboratory-sized optical computers…