Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
August 2009
From ACM TechNews
Taiwan niversity Students Build Tour Guide Robot
Engineering students at National Taiwan University recently demonstrated a robot that is capable of creating two- and three-dimensional maps of an area and then providing guided tours. During the demonstration in a campus museum…
From ACM TechNews
IBM 'x-Rays' a Molecule
IBM researchers have imaged the inner structure of a molecule, an achievement they say could lead to smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient processors and memory devices. The researchers say the breakthrough is a milestone…
From ACM TechNews
A New Language For Phone Networks
University of Cambridge professor Jon Crowcroft is leading a research effort to change how cell phones send information by creating peer-to-peer mobile device networks, or pocket-switched networks, that would enable cell phone…
From ACM TechNews
Sc09 Masterworks Program to Present Compelling Lineup of Experts
The Masterworks program at ACM's SC09 conference, which takes place Nov. 14-20 in Portland, Ore., will address how high performance computing (HPC) is being used to develop solutions for challenges in a broad range of areas,…
From ACM TechNews
Get to Hospital to See the Future
Modern hospitals provide a glimpse into how people will interact with machines in the future, according to a new Gartner report on the future of human-computer interaction. Speech recognition is an example of how health care…
From ACM TechNews
Opencl: Parallel Programmers' New Best Friend
Apple's new Snow Leopard operating system features the Open Computing Language (OpenCL), new parallel programming technology that Apple hopes will become a standard for use with all operating systems. Apple has released OpenCL…
From ACM News
Rfid Significantly Improves Item-Level Inventory Accuracy
A new study on the use of radio-frequency identification tags on individual retail items shows that inventory accuracy decreases or diminishes over time with conventional systems that rely on barcodes and/or human counting to…
From ACM News
Ole Miss to Tweet its Watts
SmartSynch Inc., a smart grid infrastructure company using Internet protocol via public wireless networks, is partnering with the University of Mississippi to reduce the power consumption of campus buildings while publishing…
From ACM TechNews
A Data Deluge Swamps Science Historians
The British Library's Jeremy Leighton John is working to find ways of archiving the massive amounts of data being generated and studied by scientists so future generations can authenticate and better understand today's discoveries…
From ACM TechNews
Three New Laws of Robotics For the Early 21st Century
Ohio State University's David Woods and Texas A&M's Robin Murphy have proposed three new laws of robotics that can be applied to robots available today. The new laws recognize that robots are not yet autonomous and are usually…
From ACM TechNews
Inventor Demonstrates Humanoid Robot's Latest AI Abilities
Independent inventor Le Trung recently demonstrated the newest version of his robot-controlling software called Bio Robot Artificial Intelligence Neural System (BRAINS). Trung has spent the past two years developing the software…
From ACM TechNews
Iu Cognitive Scientists Receive $3.1 Million For Innovative Training Methods
Indiana University (IU) Bloomington researchers have received a five-year, $3.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop and deploy new methods for training tomorrow's scientists. NSF says the Integrative…
From ACM TechNews
Scholarship Sponsorships For Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Announced
The Anita Borg Institute (ABI) for Women and Technology has announced that Cisco, Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems will be among the sponsors for the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) scholarship program. The…
From ACM TechNews
Computer Scientists at Yale Develop New Hybrid Database System
Yale computer scientists recently demonstrated HadoopDB, their new open source system for managing huge amounts of data, at the VLDB conference in Lyon, France. The computer scientists used the gathering to discuss the results…
From ACM News
Making Global Science Networking More ser-Friendly
Computer scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago's Electronic Visualization Laboratory have received a $1.9 million grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation to develop ways to make NSF's "OptIPuter" project…
From ACM News
Software System Helps Train Orthopedic Surgeons
New and experienced orthopedic surgeons can improve their surgical skills with an innovative software surveillance system that tracks their instruments during surgery performed in a computerized operating room. "The goal with…
From ACM News
China Pushes Chinese Domain Mames
China has pushed ahead with deploying Internet domain names written in Chinese as it urges action to standardize their use globally. China has solved most of the technical problems raised by Chinese-language domain names and…
From ACM News
China's 600-Year-Old Forbidden City Comes Alive Online
China's 600-year-old Forbidden City is renovating its Web site in a move to improve its offerings of Chinese culture. According to Hu Chui, head of the Palace Museum's information department, the new Web site will launch during…
From ACM News
Computer System Classifies Music By its Beat and Tempo
Taiwanese computer scientists have developed a neural network program that can classify music on its beat and tempo. Lead researchers Mao-Yuan Kao and Chang-Biau Yang of National Sun Yat-sen University, in Kaohsiung and Shyue…
From ACM TechNews
ci to Test Earthquake Damage Sensors in Newport
Researchers at UC Irvine are using sensor technology to test how water pipes are damaged in an earthquake, and the results could be used to build a public alert system for providing information to emergency responders.
From ACM TechNews
Nsf Funds CM Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in Privacy and Security
Carnegie Mellon University has received a five-year, $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation to launch a Ph.D. program in usable privacy and security. "Carnegie Mellon's CyLab Usable Privacy and Security (CUPS)…
From ACM News
Defying Experts, Rogue Computer Code Still Lurks
Like a ghost ship, a rogue software program that glided onto the Internet last November has confounded the efforts of top security experts to eradicate the program and trace its origins and purpose, exposing serious weaknesses…
From ACM TechNews
Html 5 Steps p
Microsoft Internet Explorer developers recently offered their feedback on the most recent draft of HTML version 5. Despite the fact that the entire Web is built from HTML, the belief that the industry should move toward HTML…
From ACM TechNews
Federal Grants Aim to Boost STEM Equity
Two programs created to get more minority and female students interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects and careers have received about $6.3 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Education…
From ICT Results
Software Annotates Images For Semantic Search
Innovative software developed in Europe that makes it easier to organize, search and navigate collections of digital images will soon be available to media agencies, photographers and, potentially, anyone trying to keep up with…
From ACM News
sing Robots to Serve the Elderly at Home
Robots that lend a very human-like helping hand to healthy elderly people with limited mobility may be on the horizon, thanks to three University of Illinois at Chicago engineers and a Rush University nursing specialist. "We…
From ACM News
Hankering For Molecular Electronics? Grab the New Nist Sandwich
The sandwich recipe recently concocted by scientists working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) may prove tasty for computer chip designers. The research team, which includes collaborators from the University…
From ACM TechNews
Moral Machines
Scientists at the Universidade Nova De Lisboa, in Portugal, and the Universitas Indonesia, in Indonesia, are researching artificial intelligence and the application of computational logic to create machines capable of making…
From ACM TechNews
Magic Ink Offers Full-Color Printing in an Instant
Engineers at Seoul National University in South Korea have developed M-Ink, technology capable of producing full-color prints in a fraction of a second. M-Ink can be used to produce any color in the visible spectrum and could…
From ACM TechNews
Managing Disasters With High-Tech Imaging Could Save Lives
The Information Products Laboratory for Emergency Response, a partnership between the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and the University at Buffalo (UB), aims to improve disaster mitigation planning and real-time response…