Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
November 2020
From ACM TechNews
TLDR: This AI Sums Up Research Papers in a Sentence
Software called TLDR (too long, didn't read) automatically produces one-sentence abstracts of research papers.
From ACM TechNews
Training AI Algorithms on Mostly Smiling Faces Reduces Accuracy, Introduces Bias
Researchers found that facial recognition systems show bias toward certain facial expressions.
From ACM TechNews
Climate Researchers Enlist Big Cloud Providers for Big Data Challenges
Climate science researchers increasingly are turning to the cloud for its ability to manage large amounts of data using machine-learning algorithms.
From ACM TechNews
Cheriton Computer Scientists Create Nifty Solution to Catastrophic Network Fault
Computer scientists have engineered a solution to partial network partitioning, which can cause catastrophic system failures.
From ACM TechNews
Computer-Aided Creativity in Robot Design
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have developed a system that simulates and optimizes robot design and control programs.
From ACM News
Job Interviews Without Interviewers, Products of the Pandemic
Video responses to set questions, online games that measure a person's traits and skills: The future of interviews is coming to a wider variety of professions in the pandemic.
From ACM News
Pioneering Researcher Pierre-Louis Curien Wins Inria-French Academy of Sciences Grand Prize
The Inria-French Academy of Sciences Grand Prize puts Pierre-Louis Curien in the illustrious company of France's great computer science researchers.
From ACM News
The Few, the Tired, the Open Source Coders
The open source movement runs on the heroic efforts of not enough people doing too much work. They need help.
From ACM News
Gladys West: the Hidden Figure Who Helped Invent GPS
Growing up on a farm in Virginia during segregation, West knew education would be her means of escape. But she didn't know her quiet work on a naval base would change lives around the world.
From ACM News
Modelling Clouds and Climate
Machine learning algorithms are showing promise at helping better simulate the effect of clouds, making climate models more accurate.
From ACM TechNews
Cloud Computing Is Grabbing More of Your IT Spending
Cloud-based corporate information technology spending should expand in the coming years, as businesses transition more applications and services, says Gartner.
From ACM TechNews
Software Stalks Malware in the Wild
A new tool can pinpoint online malware source code repositories with 89% accuracy.
From ACM TechNews
Worries of Widespread 'Tech Addiction' May Be Overblown, Says Study
Researchers found a weak relationship between early technology use and later technology use, indicating fears of widespread, long-lasting tech addiction may be overblown.
From ACM News
Need a Hypothesis? This A.I. Has One
Slowly, machine-learning systems are beginning to generate ideas, not just test them.
From ACM News
Simple Eye Exam With Powerful Artificial Intelligence Could Lead to Early Parkinson’s Disease Diagnosis
The researchers deployed a type of artificial intelligence called support vector machine (SVM) learning, which has been around since 1989.
From ACM TechNews
The Future of Kitchen Design Is Hands-Free, Smartphone-Activated
Appliance designers and manufacturers increasingly rely on technological advances to modernize the kitchen.
From ACM TechNews
Upgraded Radar Can Enable Self-Driving Cars to See Clearly, No Matter the Weather
Designers and appliance makers increasingly rely on a host of technological innovations to update the traditional tasks of cooking, storing and cleaning up.
From ACM News
IBM Apologizes For Firing Computer Pioneer For Being Transgender...52 Years Later
You've likely never heard of 82-year-old computer scientist Lynn Conway, but her discoveries power your smartphones and computers.
From ACM News
U.S. Senate Passes Bill to Secure Internet-Connected Devices Against Cyber Vulnerabilities
The U.S. Senate this week unanimously passed the bipartisan Internet of Things Cybersecurity Improvement Act to strengthen the cybersecurity of Internet-connected devices.
From ACM TechNews
3D Bioprinted Heart Could Train Tomorrow's Surgeons
Carnegie Mellon University researchers have fabricated the first full-size three-dimensionally (3D) bioprinted human heart model from magnetic resonance imaging data, using what it calls the Freeform Reversible Embedding of Suspended…
From ACM TechNews
Autonomous Robot Cars to Deliver Medicine Around London
A fleet of autonomous, electrically-powered robot vehicles has started delivering medicine to care homes in London's Borough of Hounslow as part of a public trial.
From ACM TechNews
Chinese-U.S. Team Receives 2020 Gordon Bell Prize
The Association for Computing Machinery named a U.S.-Chinese team of nine researchers as recipients of the 2020 ACM Gordon Bell Prize for Deep Potential Molecular Dynamics (DPMD), a machine learning-based protocol that can simulate…
From ACM News
An Angel on the Shoulder of Your Teenage Driver
Many automakers now offer driving monitors as optional or standard components that warn parents if their teenagers are not driving well.
From ACM News
Meet The Army’s Future Family Of Robot Tanks: RCV
The U.S. Army has outlined draft objectives for a range of Robotic Combat Vehicles.
From ACM News
Magnetic Spray Transforms Objects Into Insect-Scale Robots for Biomedical Applications
Driven by a magnetic field, the coated objects can crawl, walk, or roll on different surfaces.
From ACM News
When AI Sees a Man, It Thinks 'Official.' A Woman? 'Smile'
New research renews concerns about bias in image recognition services offered by Google, Microsoft, and Amazon.
From ACM TechNews
AI Research Finds 'Compute Divide' Concentrates Power, Accelerates Inequality in Era of Deep Learning
An unequal distribution of compute power in academia is exacerbating inequality in deep learning, say researchers at Virginia Tech and Western University.
From ACM TechNews
Disaster Apps Share Personal Data in Violation of Their Privacy Policies
Popular disaster applications are violating their privacy policies by continuing to track users' whereabouts, or providing personal information to third parties.
From ACM TechNews
Schools Struggling to Stay Open Get Hit by Ransomware Attacks
Schools struggling to stay open during the Covid-19 pandemic are being targeted by ransomware, as hackers threaten to post sensitive student information online.
From ACM TechNews
Building a Better Traffic Forecasting Model
Scientists are using artificial intelligence to forecast large-scale traffic patterns with greater accuracy.