Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
August 2016
From ACM News
Comey: Fbi Wants 'adult Conversation' on Device Encryption
FBI Director James Comey warned again Tuesday about the bureau's inability to access digital devices because of encryption and said investigators were collecting information about the challenge in preparation for an "adult conversation"…
From ACM Opinion
Here's How Russian Hackers Could Actually Tip an American Election
Reports this week of Russian intrusions into U.S. election systems have startled many voters, but computer experts are not surprised.
From ACM TechNews
Who Would Win the Coding Olympics?
U.S. programmers landed in 28th place in a HackerRank compilation of the results of 1.4 million coding challenges by approximately 300,000 developers.
From ACM TechNews
South Africa's New Supercomputer Delivers World-Class Competitiveness
South Africa's Center for High-Performance Computing in Cape Town a supercomputer designed to make the country a global player in the HPC research community.
From ACM TechNews
Intelligent Technology--the Evolution and Future of Automation
Researchers argue core principles of automation and artificial intelligence must be reconsidered as the world experiences an information technology shift.
From ACM TechNews
What Robots Can Learn From Babies
New software can predict how objects captured by a computing device's camera will most likely behave.
From ACM TechNews
Rise of the Robo-Journalists? Google Teaches an AI the Art of Writing a Good Headline
The Google Brain Team says it has made strides in teaching computers to summarize text, and has developed an algorithm that can write "very good" headlines.
From ACM TechNews
Virtual Peer Pressure Works Just as Well as the Real Thing
Virtual pressure from a computer-simulated peer is just as motivating as real peer pressure.
From ACM News
The Surprising Story of the First Microprocessors
Transistors, the electronic amplifiers and switches found at the heart of everything from pocket radios to warehouse-size supercomputers, were invented in 1947.
From ACM News
Forget Software: Now Hackers Are Exploiting Physics
Practically every word we use to describe a computer is a metaphor.
From ACM News
Nasa's Next-Gen Ships Run on Last-Gen Chips
Earlier this summer, NASA announced that ARM Holdings' A53 will be the microprocessor core design at the heart of the agency's next generation of spacecraft.
From ACM TechNews
When Computers Learn Human Languages, They Also Learn Human Prejudices
New research from Princeton University suggests computers learning human languages can demonstrate prejudices and biased word associations.
From ACM TechNews
A Nanoscale Wireless Communication System via Plasmonic Antennas
Boston College researchers have developed the first nanoscale wireless communication system using antennas that send and receive surface plasmons.
From ACM TechNews
sing Data Science to Confront Policing Challenges
Police are turning to academic institutions using machine learning methods to predict and prevent adverse incidents.
From ACM News
Cornell Video Game Speeds Language Learning
Adding "fun" and "chat" aspects to the game enhances memorization and understanding of context.
From ACM News
Print Your Own 3D Lucy to Work Out How the Famous Hominin Died
The world's most famous fossil is now open source. 3D scans of Lucy—a 3.18-million-year-old hominin found in Ethiopia—were released on 29 August, allowing anyone to examine her arm, shoulder and knee bones and even make their…
From ACM News
How Driverless Cars May Interact With People
There are plenty of unanswered questions about how self-driving cars would function in the real world, like understanding local driving customs and handing controls back to a human in an emergency.
From ACM News
An Exoplanet Too Far
Another day, another world.
From ACM Careers
The Man Who Created Leappad Wants To Turn Your Eyes Into a Mouse
First came the computer mouse. Then the touchscreen.
From ACM News
Stretching the Limit of Silicon Nanowires For Next-Generation Electronics
Flexible electronics, which could be used to control flexible robots, depend on the ability to produce electrical circuits that can be repeatedly stretched and bent while remaining operational.
From ACM News
High-Speed Video Footage Solves One of the Great Mysteries of Human Blood Flow
Red blood cells are flexible biconcave discs that spend their lives suspended in blood plasma.
From ACM Careers
G.e., the 124-Year-Old Software Start-p
It may not qualify as a lightning-bolt eureka moment, but Jeffrey R. Immelt, chief executive of General Electric, recalls the June day in 2009 that got him thinking.
From ACM TechNews
Secure Networks For the Internet of the Future
Researchers at Bavaria, Germany's University of Wurzburg are developing secure and efficient networks for the Internet of the future.
From ACM TechNews
Extending Battery Life For Mobile Devices
Mobile devices will be able to leverage battery power in larger nearby devices for communication using new radio technology.
From ACM TechNews
ta Physicists to pgrade Titan Supercomputer Software For Extreme Scale Applications Such as Biology and Materials Science Simulations
Researchers have been awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to improve operational efficiencies of the Titan supercomputer to support data-heavy applications.
From ACM TechNews
Flood Forecasting Gets Major pgrade
Researchers have created the National Water Model, which provides forecasts, data, and decision support to emergency services and water management personnel.
From ACM TechNews
Electrons at the Speed Limit
Researchers have explored the ultimate speed of electrons when controlled by electric fields, which has implications for future petahertz electronics.
From ACM News
The Hype—and Hope—of Artificial Intelligence
Computers in general, and software in particular, are more difficult than other kinds of technology for most people to grok, and they overwhelm us with a sense of mystery.
From ACM News
Here’s How the Internet Was Invented at CLA
Werner Herzog’s new film tracks the birthplace of modern connectivity.
From ACM TechNews
System Might Detect Doctored Images and Videos For the Military
An international coalition of researchers is developing technologies that could help the U.S. military detect manipulations of open source images.