Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
January 2017
From ACM News
For the Next Election, Don't Recount the Vote. Encrypt It
Let's be honest: The 2016 election wasn’t a sterling display of American democracy.
From ACM News
Study Reveals Substantial Evidence of Holographic niverse
A UK, Canadian and Italian study has provided what researchers believe is the first observational evidence that our universe could be a vast and complex hologram.
From ACM TechNews
CS Professor Starts Club to Combat Stereotypes Against Women in Computer Sciences
The computer science program at Colorado State University is making a concentrated effort to attract female students and create a more diverse and welcoming environment within the department.
From ACM TechNews
$4.3 Million in Research Takes Aim at Devastating Citrus Disease
Clemson University researchers are working on a $4.3-million study aimed at protecting citrus crops from a bacterial disease that has affected at least 10 states.
From ACM TechNews
Berkeley Launches Riselab, Enabling Computers to Make Intelligent Real-Time Decisions
The University of California, Berkeley recently launched the RISELab, which aims to improve how machines make intelligent decisions based on real-time input.
From ACM News
Supercomputers to Replace Particle Accelerators?
Moving beyond the need for physical experiments.
From ACM News
Inside the 20-Year Quest to Build Computers That Play Poker
Four of the best professional poker players in the world spent most of January holed up at the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh, losing.
From ACM News
Google's Go-Playing Machine Opens the Door to Robots that Learn
Two robotic arms face two closed doors. Both reach forward and miss the door handles entirely.
From ACM News
Close Views Show Saturn's Rings in nprecedented Detail
Newly released images showcase the incredible closeness with which NASA's Cassini spacecraft, now in its "Ring-Grazing" orbits phase, is observing Saturn's dazzling rings of icy debris.
From ACM TechNews
Smart City Transport Systems
Researchers have developed a machine-learning program to accurately recreate and predict public transport use based on the distribution of land use and amenities in Singapore.
From ACM TechNews
Finding Credibility Clues on Twitter
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have built a language model that identifies words and phrases that lead to strong or weak perceived levels of credibility on Twitter.
From ACM TechNews
Vanishing Point: The Rise of the Invisible Computer
Experts agree the steady advances of computer chip transistor shrinkage--faster chip speeds, greater efficiency, and less-expensive manufacturing--will soon reach their physical limits.
From ACM TechNews
nhappy Developers Lead to Bad Code and Bad Processes
Researchers at the University of Stuttgart in Germany have found unhappy developers adversely affect the development process and software products.
From ACM TechNews
I Can See Clearly Now
University of Utah researchers have created "smart glasses" with liquid-based lenses that can automatically adjust focus on what a person is seeing, whether it is far away or nearby.
From ACM TechNews
.s. Intelligence Seeks a niversal Translator For Text Search in Any Language
The U.S. Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity's Machine Translation for English Retrieval of Information in Any Language program aims to give researchers and analysts a tool to help them search for documents in their…
From ACM News
Tech Scrambles After Trump Issues Immigration Order
President Donald Trump's broad executive order to restrict visas and refugees particularly from Muslim countries left tech giants like Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft scrambling on Saturday to safeguard their employees …
From ACM News
Quantum Computers Versus Hackers, Round One. Fight!
This week D-Wave, a leader in the nascent field of quantum computing, unveiled its latest machine, D-Wave 2000Q, as well as its first customer: a cybersecurity firm called Total Digital Security.
From ACM News
Top Technews Stories of 2016
Readers voted with their clicks.
From ACM News
A New Test For Life on Other Planets
A simple chemistry method could vastly enhance how scientists search for signs of life on other planets.
From ACM TechNews
China Can Help Drive Global Progress in Quantum Computing
2000 ACM A.M. Turing Award recipient Andrew Chi-Chih Yao says China could potentially take a global lead in quantum computing innovation.
From ACM TechNews
New Project to Boost Sat Nav Positioning Accuracy Anywhere in the World
The University of Nottingham in the U.K. will participate in a four-year project using Global Navigation Satellite Systems to establish an architecture for the world's most accurate real-time positioning service.
From ACM TechNews
Supercool Electrons
The Quantum Dynamics Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University in Japan is researching a potential system for quantum computing, using electrons floating on liquid helium.
From ACM TechNews
Artificial Intelligence ncovers New Insight Into Biophysics of Cancer
Researchers have used a machine-learning artificial intelligence platform to predict three reagents that produced a previously unseen cancer-like phenotype in tadpoles.
From ACM TechNews
A Computer Program That Learns How to Save Fuel
Artificial intelligence may one day be able to help cars use energy more efficiently.
From ACM News
Monero, the Drug Dealer's Cryptocurrency of Choice, Is on Fire
For the cryptocurrency community, 2016 was a very good year.
From ACM News
Neuroscience: Big Brain, Big Data
As big brain-mapping initiatives go, Taiwan's might seem small.
From ACM News
The AI that Learns Our Habits and Knows When People Cheat
For people who play the video game Counter Strike online, it's hard enough watching your back at the best of times. In the fast-paced first-person shooter, there are always players with quicker reflexes or a sharper eye.
From ACM News
How AI Is Changing Software Development
Artificial intelligence technologies like advanced machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing will help build better software faster.
From ACM TechNews
AI Could Transform the Science of Counting Crowds
The University of Central Florida has been developing artificial intelligence solutions to relieve crowd scientists from the task of manually counting heads.
From ACM TechNews
Medical, Scientific Image Analysis Vastly Improved By New Software
University of Missouri researchers have developed that very quickly and accurately analyzes any series of images.