Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
December 2016
From ACM News
How Russia Recruited Elite Hackers For Its Cyberwar
Aleksandr B. Vyarya thought his job was to defend people from cyberattacks until, he says, his government approached him with a request to do the opposite.
From ACM News
Everything You Need to Know About Gene Therapy's Most Promising Year
For a few lucky patients, 2016 was the year when gene therapy turned from promises to cures.
From ACM TechNews
Election System Susceptible to Rigging Despite Red Flags
The U.S. election system is fraught with vulnerabilities, including antiquated electronic voting machines that can be hacked without leaving a paper trail.
From ACM TechNews
New Simulation Software Improves Helicopter Pilot Training
Researchers at the Technical University of Munich in Germany have developed simulation software to improve training for helicopter pilots via real-time computational analysis of both fluid mechanics and flight dynamics.
From ACM TechNews
The Gender Gap in Computer Science Is Hurting .s. Businesses
Women's share of the computer science workforce continues to fall despite efforts to expand computing education for children and young adults, according to research from Accenture and Girls Who Code.
From ACM TechNews
Brain Activity Is Too Complicated For Humans to Decipher. Machines Can Decode It For S
Scientists are using artificial intelligence to analyze neuroscientific data, to gain insight into how the human brain functions.
From ACM TechNews
Why Connecting All the World's Robots Will Drive 2017's Top Technology Trends
Technological developments in 2016 offer guidance as to how 2017 will unfold.
From ACM TechNews
Expect Deeper and Cheaper Machine Learning
Machine-learning technologies are undergoing a transformation, appearing in products and systems that experts predict will be less expensive and more focused on deep-learning calculations.
From ACM News
How Scientists se Slack
When geneticist Daniel MacArthur checks into his lab, the first thing he does is fire up Slack, a workplace messaging app.
From ACM News
.s. Set to Announce Response to Russian Election Hacking: Sources
The Obama administration plans to announce on Thursday a series of retaliatory measures against Russia for hacking into U.S. political institutions and individuals and leaking information in an effort to help President-elect …
From ACM TechNews
A Wolverine Inspired Material
University of California, Riverside researchers say they have developed an ionic conductor that is transparent, mechanically stretchable, and self-healing.
From ACM TechNews
Multi-Core Processors For Mobility and Industry 4.0
Researchers have successfully demonstrated that multi-core technologies in principle could provide digital computation capacity for safety-critical applications.
From ACM TechNews
Enhanced Energy: Onr Global Seeks More Powerful Electronic Devices
The U.S. Office of Naval Research Global is sponsoring research by the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in the United Arab Emirates on a new nanomaterial for solar cells and photodetectors.
From ACM TechNews
b Awarded $1.2 Million For Self-Driving Car Research
University at Buffalo researchers have received a $1.2-million U.S. National Science Foundation grant to create a research center for self-driving and connected vehicles.
From ACM News
Can Alexa Help Solve a Murder? Police Think So—But Amazon Won't Give p Her Data.
When police responded to a home in Bentonville, Ark., one Sunday morning last November, they discovered Victor Collins's dead body in the backyard.
From ACM News
Exploring Post-Quantum Cryptography
The New Hope post-quantum algorithm to protect encryptions against quantum computers won its developers Facebook’s 2016 Internet Defense Prize (and $100,000); Google is experimenting with its use for part of its data traffic. …
From ACM News
Rewriting the Code of Life
Early on an unusually blustery day in June, Kevin Esvelt climbed aboard a ferry at Woods Hole, bound for Nantucket Island.
From ACM News
Deep Learning AI Listens to Machines For Signs of Trouble
Driving your car until it breaks down on the road is never anyone's favorite way to learn the need for routine maintenance.
From ACM TechNews
How Much Are You Worth to Facebook? A Free Tool Now Provides the Answer
Researchers at Spain's University of Madrid have developed a tool that can identify a Facebook user's economic value on the advertising market in real time.
From ACM TechNews
Nist Asks Public to Help Future-Proof Electronic Information
The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology is asking the world's cryptographers to help stave off the potential decryption of digital information by quantum computers.
From ACM TechNews
Astronauts to Get Help From Snake Robots
Snake robots that can assist astronauts are being investigated by researchers at Norwegian independent research organization SINTEF as part of a project with the European Space Agency.
From ACM TechNews
A Matter of Life or Death
More than 2.5 million people from more than 160 countries have shared their opinions about which algorithmic decisions are most ethical for a self-driving vehicle to make.
From ACM TechNews
Walking the Line: Wpi Students Develop App as Sobriety Test
A smartphone application in development at Massachusetts' Worcester Polytechnic Institute tells users when they have had too much alcohol by monitoring changes in the way they walk.
From ACM TechNews
se It or Lose It: The Search For Enlightenment in Dark Data
The growth of structured and unstructured data is proceeding exponentially, yet a recent IBM study estimated more than 80% of all data is "dark," or unmanaged and unstructured.
From ACM News
New Rules For Avoiding Cyber Bugs in Medical Devices
The U.S. government on Tuesday issued rules for addressing cyber vulnerabilities in medical devices, providing manufacturers with guidelines for fixing security bugs in equipment, including pacemakers, insulin pumps and imaging…
From ACM News
2016: The Year That Deep Learning Took Over the Internet
On the west coast of Australia, Amanda Hodgson is launching drones out towards the Indian Ocean so that they can photograph the water from above.
From ACM News
Silicon Valley Reckons With Its Political Power
On Sept. 12, 2016, there was a momentary realignment in the constellation of global business.
From ACM TechNews
Computer Models Find Ancient Solutions to Modern Problems
At Washington State University, archaeologists have developed computer simulations of the interactions between ancestral peoples in the American Southwest and their environment.
From ACM TechNews
New Technology Coordinates Drones in Team Missions
West Virginia University researchers have developed a genetic algorithm to mobilize unmanned aerial vehicles in team missions.
From ACM TechNews
Honey, I Shrunk the Circuit
Sandia National Laboratories researchers have demonstrated the highest-bandgap transistor ever, a High Electron Mobility Transistor.