Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
November 2018
From ACM News
Cambridge Analytica Knew How You'd Vote If You Wore Wrangler
The whistle-blower behind the Cambridge Analytica revelations said the now-defunct data research firm used the fashion preferences of Facebook Inc. users to help develop the algorithms needed to target them with political messaging…
From ACM Opinion
Nailing Down the Nature of 'Oumuamua; It's Probably a Comet, but . . .
Shortly before Halloween, the chairman of Harvard's astronomy department openly declared that an interstellar object hurtling through our Solar System might just be part of an extraterrestrial craft. And then . . . crickets.
…From ACM TechNews
A Big Step Toward the Practical Application of 3D Holography With High-Performance Computers
Researchers in Japan have developed a computer that can project high-quality three-dimensional holography as a video.
From ACM TechNews
How the .K. Plans to Teach Computer Science to Every Child
The Raspberry Pi startup will train 40,000 U.K. teachers to teach computer science, with the ultimate goal of teaching computer science to all U.K. schoolchildren.
From ACM TechNews
Smart Headlights Inch Closer to American Roads
Adaptive driving beam headlights are not currently permitted in the U.S., but that could soon change.
From ACM TechNews
Fearful of Bias, Google Blocks Gender-Based Pronouns From New AI Tool
In May, Google introduced a feature for Gmail that automatically completes sentences for users as they type, but will not suggest gender-based pronouns.
From ACM TechNews
Inside the Futuristic Restaurant Where a Robot Has Replaced the Bartender
The Cyberdog wine bar in Prague, Czech Republic, is equipped with a robot bartender that serves drinks ordered via a smartphone app.
From ACM News
How Supercomputers Can Help Fix Our Wildfire Problem
Fire is chaos. Fire doesn't care what it destroys or who it kills—it spreads without mercy, leaving total destruction in its wake, as California's Camp and Woolsey fires proved so dramatically this month.
From ACM News
Asteroid-Sampling Mission Zeroes In on Tiny Space Rock
For the second time this year, a spacecraft is about to partner with an asteroid in an intimate dance.
From ACM News
Making AI Algorithms Crazy Fast sing Chips Powered by Light
Inside a small laboratory in Boston's seaport district, buried within a jumble of lasers, lenses, mirrors, and a tangle of wiring, is a tiny chip that might be about to have a big impact on the world of artificial intelligence…
From ACM News
Tardos to Receive von Neumann Medal
Tardos was cited "For contributions to the field of algorithms, including foundational new methods in optimization, approximation algorithms, and algorithmic game theory."
From ACM TechNews
Behind an Effort to Fact-Check Live News With Speed and Accuracy
A new artificial intelligence-driven voice-scanning tool can identify dubious statements seconds after their utterance, in an effort to more accurately fact-check news.
From ACM TechNews
Meet Zora, the Robot Caregiver
Jouarre, a nursing facility outside Paris, is using a robot to help care for elderly patients.
From ACM TechNews
Drones Offer Ability to Find, ID, and Count Marine Megafauna
North Carolina State University researchers have demonstrated that consumer-grade drones can effectively monitor marine species across multiple sites in the wild.
From ACM News
Virtual Reality Goes on Trial
VR could significantly change the way jurors and judges weigh evidence in the courtroom.
From ACM News
China Is Building a $9 Billion Rival to the American-Run GPS
China is taking its rivalry with the U.S. to the heavens, spending at least $9 billion to build a celestial navigation system and cut its dependence on the American-owned GPS amid heightening tensions between the two countries…
From ACM News
K Police Wants AI to Stop Violent Crime Before It Happens
Police in the UK want to predict serious violent crime using artificial intelligence, New Scientist can reveal. The idea is that individuals flagged by the system will be offered interventions, such as counselling, to avert potential…
From ACM TechNews
As Immigrant Farmworkers Become More Scarce, Robots Replace Humans
In response to the diminishing supply of immigrant labor, the U.S. agriculture sector is increasingly turning to robots that can do the work traditionally done by humans.
From ACM TechNews
Study: Smart Speakers Make Passive Listeners
Cornell University researchers found people who read choices online digested information nine times faster than those who heard them listed by a smart speaker product.
From ACM TechNews
China Leapfrogs .S. in Supercomputer Deployments
The latest iteration of the biannual Top500 ranking found China has increased its domestic supercomputer installations to more than twice the number found in the U.S.
From ACM TechNews
Stanford Develops an Electronic Glove That Gives Robots a Sense of Touch
Stanford University researchers have developed an electronic glove equipped with sensors that could give robotic hands human dexterity.
From ACM TechNews
NSW Has Found a Way to Access Information Stored Within Atoms
Researchers at the University of New South Wales in Australia have demonstrated a compact sensor for accessing information stored in the electrons of individual atoms.
From ACM TechNews
What's Next for NASA's New Mars Lander?
The new Mars lander will begin investigating the planet's interior in several months, after deploying and calibrating a burrowing heat probe and a suite of seismometers.
From ACM News
Quantum Computing: Atomic Clocks Make for Longer-Lasting Qubits
A decade ago, quantum computing was still something of a parlor game.
From ACM News
AAAS Honors Accomplished Scientists as 2018 Elected Fellows
The 416 new Fellows include 20 in the Section on Information, Computing & Communication.
From ACM Careers
China Expands Research Funding, Luring .S. Scientists And Students
In 2003, Jay Siegel was up for a new challenge. Siegel was a tenured professor of chemistry at the University of California, San Diego, but he took a job at the University of Zurich.
From ACM News
InSight Is Catching Rays on Mars
NASA's InSight has sent signals to Earth indicating that its solar panels are open and collecting sunlight on the Martian surface.
From ACM TechNews
How Will We Outsmart AI Liars?
The advancement of machine learning via neural networks is stoking concerns of artificial intelligence being used for mass manipulation and misinformation.
From ACM TechNews
China's Great Wall Is 'Crumbling.' Now Architects Are sing Drones to Save It.
China is deploying drones to scan portions of the Great Wall reportedly too hazardous to cross, compiling information to support its rehabilitation.
From ACM TechNews
Machine Learning, Meet Quantum Computing
Researchers have constructed the world's first single-layer neural network, known as a perceptron, and induced it to perform simple image processing tasks.