Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
September 2016
From ACM News
Wireless Alerts Sound For Nyc Bombing Suspect
New Yorkers' morning commute was interrupted this morning by a chorus of emergency alerts, part of a manhunt for bombing suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami.
From ACM TechNews
Hardware Hack Defeats Iphone Passcode Security
University of Cambridge professor Sergei Skorobogatov has cloned iPhone memory chips, giving him an unlimited number of attempts to guess the passcode.
From ACM TechNews
Saving Lives By Letting Cars Talk to Each Other
Wireless connectivity offers to improve safety as semi-autonomous and fully autonomous cars mature and proliferate.
From ACM TechNews
Complex Materials Can Self-Organize Into Circuits, May Form Basis For Multifunction Chips
Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory say they have discovered unique behaviors of nanoscale materials that could advance microprocessor technology.
From ACM News
Congressional Report Slams Nsa Leaker Edward Snowden
A House intelligence committee report issued Thursday condemned Edward Snowden, saying the National Security Agency leaker is not a whistleblower and that the vast majority of the documents he stole were defense secrets that…
From ACM TechNews
Sussex Physicists Develop New Touchscreen Technology
Researchers at the U.K.'s University of Sussex say they have developed a new touchscreen technology based on electrodes made from indium tin oxide.
From ACM TechNews
How America's 911 Emergency Response System Can Be Hacked
Researchers at Israel's Ben Gurion University have created a method for disabling the U.S. 911 emergency system with telephony denial-of-service attacks.
From ACM TechNews
Media Lab Conference Addresses Gender Bias, Diversity, and Inclusion in STEM
U.S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith has called for a push against implicit gender bias and for greater diversity and racial equity in technology disciplines.
From ACM TechNews
Engineers Teach Machines to Recognize Tree Species
A new method developed by engineers from the California Institute of Technology has the potential to change the way urban forests are surveyed.
From ACM TechNews
How Big Data and Algorithms Are Slashing the Cost of Fixing Flint's Water Crisis
University of Michigan researchers are using data analytics methods similar to those employed by Facebook and Amazon to help solve the water contamination in Flint, MI.
From ACM News
Cassini Begins Epic Final Year at Saturn
After more than 12 years studying Saturn, its rings and moons, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has entered the final year of its epic voyage.
From ACM News
Detailed Map Shows Milky Way Is Bigger Than We Thought
The European Space Agency (ESA) has released the largest, most detailed map yet of the Milky Way. It pinpoints the 3D positions of 1.1 billion stars, almost 400 million of which were previously unknown to science.
From ACM News
Robot Reinforces Learning
Having students 'teach' their lessons to a classroom robot increases engagement.
From ACM TechNews
How Imperceptible Vibrations Could Take Augmented Reality to a New Level
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have developed a technique to make augmented reality technologies more immersive.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Hope to Make Phone Batteries Last Longer
A team of researchers is investigating how common techniques used by programmers might be inadvertently contributing to the battery drain of smart phones.
From ACM TechNews
Simulation Highlights Potential For Low-Cost Security Imaging Device
Researchers say they are developing security imaging technology that would cost less than scanning devices used in airports to detect hidden weapons or contraband.
From ACM TechNews
Fighting Crime at the Intersection of Science and Social Justice
Researchers at the Washington University in St. Louis have developed a Web-based application that helps fight sex trafficking by targeting places where it usually occurs.
From ACM News
Brain-Sensing Technology Allows Typing at 12 Words Per Minute
It does not take an infinite number of monkeys to type a passage of Shakespeare.
From ACM News
Humans Do Dumb Things with Smart Cities
New York City wants to make Wi-Fi available to anyone who walks its streets. But Gotham is finding out the hard way that free and open Internet access is ripe for abuse.
From ACM News
In Memoriam: Eric A. Weiss 1917-2016
Weiss nurtured the nascent publication programs of a young ACM.
From ACM News
The Science of Smartphone Batteries and How to Keep Them Charged
Whenever a new iPhone gets announced, there's one feature that every Apple lover is hoping for: improved battery life.
From ACM News
Socieotechnical Changes Inspire pdating Acm's Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
ACM is updating the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct to maintain its relevance as the conscience of computing.
From ACM TechNews
Machine Learning Techniques Aim to Reduce Traffic
A study by researchers from Tsinghua University in China focused on how traffic signaling can be optimized using deep reinforcement learning.
From ACM TechNews
Connecting the Jungle and Other Remote Parts of the World
The European Union's TUCAN3G project is bringing 3G wireless service to previously unconnected regions of the world.
From ACM TechNews
Faster Parallel Computing
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have developed a new programming language.
From ACM TechNews
A Computer Simulation to Spare Children From Heart Surgery
New software models and compares various pediatric heart surgery interventions in advance, as part of the European Union's CARDIOPROOF project.
From ACM TechNews
Q+a With the First Female Director of Mit's Largest Research Lab
Daniela Rus discusses her objectives as the first female director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
From ACM News
How Space Scientists Turn Exoplanets Into Places We Can 'see'
Do a Google image search for "exoplanet."
From ACM News
Pluto 'paints' Its Largest Moon Red
In June 2015, when the cameras on NASA's approaching New Horizons spacecraft first spotted the large reddish polar region on Pluto's largest moon, Charon, mission scientists knew two things: they'd never seen anything like it…
From ACM News
The Bizarre World of Bitcoin 'mining' Finds a New Home in Tibet
Inside a metal shed in the Tibetan highlands of western China, thousands of microprocessors flank narrow corridors, generating a constant hum and stifling waves of heat.