Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
July 2018
From ACM News
Neural Network Implemented with Light Instead of Electrons
Neural networks have a reputation for being computationally expensive. But only the training portion of things really stresses most computer hardware, since it involves regular evaluations of performance and constant trips back…
From ACM TechNews
Cell-Sized Robots Can Sense Their Environment
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have developed cell-sized robots that can sense their environment, store data, and conduct computational tasks.
From ACM TechNews
Computer Simulation of Receptors Reveals a New Ligand-Binding Site
Using a computer model of the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor, researchers have found a unique binding site for natural ligands and drugs.
From ACM TechNews
Deep Learning Quickly Finds Structures Affected by Lava
Researchers are working with the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency to see how lava from the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii has affected buildings and infrastructure.
From ACM News
How Robot Hands Are Evolving to Do What Ours Can
A robotic hand? Four autonomous fingers and a thumb that can do anything your own flesh and blood can do? That is still the stuff of fantasy.
From ACM News
Legislating Against AI Bias
Is this the beginning of the end of algorithmic bias in public-sector services?
From ACM News
The Hackers Teaching Old DNA Sequencers New Tricks
In a basement storeroom at Stanford University in California, the guts of a dozen DNA sequencers lie exposed—hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cameras and lasers, optics and fluid controllers, all scavenged from a late…
From ACM TechNews
World's Largest Robot Hauls Ore Through Western Australia
The world's largest robot is an autonomous train that hauls tons of material across Australia.
From ACM TechNews
Scientists Perfect Technique to Boost Capacity of Computer Storage a Thousandfold
A team of researchers has refined a method to enable a 1,000-fold enlargement of computer storage capacity, and used it to fabricate atomic-scale circuits.
From ACM TechNews
AI Technology Could Help Protect Water Supplies
Researchers have developed artificial intelligence software that can identify and quantify different kinds of cyanobacteria that can shut down water systems.
From ACM TechNews
NIH Partners With Google Cloud to Speed p Medical Breakthroughs
A new U.S. National Institutes of Health program aims to help researchers accelerate biomedical advances by providing access to commercial cloud computing technologies.
From ACM TechNews
Decade-Old Bluetooth Flaw Lets Hackers Steal Data Passing Between Devices
A study by the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology warns of a decade-old bug in the Bluetooth specification.
From ACM TechNews
Bug-Sized Robot Competitors to Swarm DARPA's 'Robot Olympics'
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is seeking insect-sized robots to compete under its Short-Range Independent Microrobotic Platforms (SHRIMP) program.
From ACM Opinion
The Ethics of Computer Science: This Researcher Has a Controversial Proposal
In the midst of growing public concern over artificial intelligence (AI), privacy and the use of data, Brent Hecht has a controversial proposal: the computer-science community should change its peer-review process to ensure that…
From ACM News
How They Did It (and Will Likely Try Again): GR Hackers vs. S Elections
In a press briefing just two weeks ago, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced that the grand jury assembled by Special Counsel Robert Mueller had returned an indictment against 12 officers of Russia's Main Intelligence…
From ACM TechNews
A Fault-Tolerant System for Stopping 'Leaks' in Quantum Computers
Researchers at Yale University have designed a system to prevent future quantum computers from "leaking" errors in ancillary quantum bits to logical qubits.
From ACM TechNews
Hubble Researcher Focuses on Blockchain for Space Data Processing
A Space Telescope Science Institute astronomer is testing a decentralized blockchain network for processing massive volumes of data produced by the Hubble Space Telescope.
From ACM TechNews
Computing Power Solves Molecular Mystery
Norwegian University of Science and Technology researchers have come up with a new technique for probing molecular behavior.
From ACM TechNews
DARPA Seeks nderground Mapping Capability
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in September will host competitions to advance geotechnology's subterranean mapping capabilities.
From ACM TechNews
Future Electronic Components to Be Printed Like Newspapers
Purdue University researchers have developed a manufacturing technique that can make electronics faster than conventional methods.
From ACM News
One Woman's Math Could Help NASA Put People on Mars
Kathleen Howell never aspired to walk on the moon.
From ACM News
Wild About Tech, China Even Loves Robot Waiters That Can't Serve
The mind-reading headsets won't read minds.
From ACM TechNews
Augmented Reality Makes Robots Better Coworkers
Roboticists from the University of Colorado, Boulder are investigating the use of augmented reality to improve human-robot collaboration.
From ACM TechNews
Japanese Researchers se AI to Identify Early-Stage Stomach Cancer With High Accuracy
Researchers have successfully used artificial intelligence to identify early-stage stomach cancer with high accuracy.
From ACM TechNews
Arizona Teachers Trained to Integrate Computer Science in Their Classrooms
Grand Canyon University recently hosted more than 80 teachers from across Arizona for a workshop on how to integrate computer science curriculums into their classrooms.
From ACM TechNews
Apps Make It Easy for Domestic Abusers to Spy
Cornell University researchers have found thousands of applications enabling domestic abusers to spy on their partners.
From ACM News
Rethinking Autonomous Vehicles
Consumer fears intensify as self-driving car fatalities dent the driverless dream.
From ACM News
There's Water on Mars! Signs of Buried Lake Tantalize Scientists
A large saltwater lake seems to lurk under ice near Mars's south pole.
From ACM News
Hordes of Research Robots Could Be Hijacked for Fun and Sabotage
Many experimental robots that live in research laboratories around the world may be wide open to hackers.
From ACM Careers
Who Just Beat the Bay Area in Tech Jobs? Toronto
Toronto's tech scene is so hot the city created more jobs than the San Francisco Bay area, Seattle and Washington, D.C., combined last year, while leapfrogging New York in a ranking of "talent markets."