Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
July 2021
From ACM TechNews
Less Chat Can Help Robots Make Better Decisions
Robot swarms could cooperate more effectively if communication among some members of the swarm could be curtailed.
From ACM TechNews
Tracking Circadian Rhythms From Your Smartwatch
A new algorithm can extract an individual’s circadian rhythm from heart rate data collected by their smartwatch.
From ACM TechNews
Cybersecurity Technique Keeps Hackers Guessing
Development Command's Army Research Laboratory ]has designed a machine learning-based framework to augment the security of in-vehicle computer networks.
From ACM TechNews
Phone's Dark Mode Doesn't Necessarily Save Much Battery Life
Purdue University researchers found in a recent study that putting a smartphone in dark mode is unlikely to save significant battery life.
From ACM TechNews
Stanford ML Tool Streamlines Student Feedback Process for Computer Science Professors
Stanford University researchers have developed a machine learning teaching tool designed to assist computer science professors in gauging feedback from large numbers of students.
From ACM News
Will the NSA Finally Build Its Superconducting Spy Computer?
The U.S. government eyes cryogenically cooled circuitry for tomorrow's exascale computers.
From ACM News
Hackers Used Never-Before-Seen Wiper in Attack on Iranian Train System
SentinelOne analysts were able to recreate the July 9 attack and identify the threat actor behind it.
From ACM News
The Really Critical Infrastructure Need: American-Made Semiconductors
About 40% of new chip-production capacity projected to be added in the next decade will be in China.
From ACM News
Reducing Digital Overload
Considering ways to curb screen time and build healthier habits.
From ACM News
White House Pushes for Stronger Critical Infrastructure Security
Securing critical infrastructure requires a "whole-of-nation" effort, government official says.
From ACM News
Semiconductor Shortage Hammering Automakers, Costing Billions in Lost Production and Sales
Semiconductor shortage hammering automakers, costing billions in lost production and sales.
From ACM News
Controversial Tool Calls Out Thousands of Hackable Websites
PunkSpider is back, and crawling hundreds of millions of sites for vulnerabilities.
From ACM News
Why Self-Driving Cars Could be Going the Way of the Jetpack
Some observers say the dream of fully autonomous vehicles is a mirage: creating robot vehicles able to tackle any kind of road or traffic situation is just too tough a nut to crack. Are they right?
From ACM TechNews
University of Minnesota Develops Tool to Help Farmers Make Crop Input Decisions
Farmers can formulate a budget balance sheet for nitrogen reduction plans and view customized economic and environmental impacts and benefits of the fields they plant through a new tool.
From ACM TechNews
Skoltech Method Helps Train Computer Vision Algorithms on Limited Data
Researchers have developed a technique to help computer vision algorithms more accurately process satellite imagery of the Earth, even when trained on limited data.
From ACM TechNews
Emergent Magnetic Monopoles Isolated Using Quantum-Annealing Computer
Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory used a D-Wave quantum-annealing computer to test the behavior of isolated emergent magnetic monopoles.
From ACM TechNews
Duke Energy Used Computer Vision, Robots to Cut Costs by $74 Million
Bonnie Titone at Duke Energy said the U.S. utility has slashed its labor costs by more than $74 million via artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions, including computer vision and robots.
From ACM TechNews
How Olympic Tracking Systems Capture Athletic Performances
This year's Olympic Games in Tokyo use an advanced three-dimensional tracking system that captures athletes' performances in fine detail.
From ACM TechNews
Wearable Camera Reduces Collision Risk for Blind, Visually Impaired
A wearable computer vision device developed by Harvard Medical School scientists may help reduce collisions and other accidents for the blind and visually impaired.
From ACM TechNews
Bipedal Robot Learns to Run, Completes 5K
An untethered bipedal robot engineered by Oregon State University (OSU) researchers and built by OSU spinout company Agility Robotics completed a five-kilometer run in just over 53 minutes.
From ACM TechNews
Lost in L.A.? Fire Department Can Find You with What3words Location Technology
The Los Angeles Fire Department has partnered with digital location startup What3words, which has assigned a unique three-word name to each of 57 billion 10-foot-square spots on Earth.
From ACM TechNews
High-Speed Projectors Power Virtual Air Hockey With Shape-Changing Paddles
Scientists at Japan's Tohoku University have invented a virtual version of air hockey that uses shapeshifting virtual projections of paddles and pucks.
From ACM TechNews
Companies Beef Up AI Models with Synthetic Data
Companies are building synthetic datasets when real-world data is unavailable to train artificial intelligence models to identify anomalies.
From ACM News
The Great Quantum Computing Race
Companies and countries are pouring tens of billions of dollars into different qubit technologies, but it's still too early to predict a winner.
From ACM News
How Olympic Surfing Is Trying to Ride the Machine Learning Wave
As surfing completes its first-ever Olympic ride, the sport is poised for another sea change thanks to artificial intelligence and big data.
From ACM News
Hackers Turning to 'Exotic' Programming Languages for Malware Development
For example, earlier this year, enterprise security firm Proofpoint discovered new malware written in Nim and Rust.
From ACM TechNews
Connected Autonomous Vehicles Make Intersections Safer
Scientists at Arizona State University and Carnegie Mellon University are enhancing intersection safety with connected autonomous vehicles and distributed real-time systems.
From ACM TechNews
UC Berkeley Researchers Model Robot AI Algorithm on Human Babies
An artificial intelligence algorithm developed by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon University helps four-legged robots make quick adaptations to their environment.
From ACM TechNews
Open-Source Software to Help Cities Plant in Pursuit of Clean Air
Researchers in the U.K. have developed free open source software that towns and cities can use to estimate reductions in air pollutant concentrations from different methods of street planting.
From ACM News
Combining Two Approaches to Advance Quantum Computing
This work also represents a significant advancement to our understanding and control of Andreev levels.