Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
September 2021
From ACM News
Open Wearables Initiative Highlights Standards in Open Source Algorithms
A new program of the Open Wearables Initiative is designed to identify open source algorithms that may become de facto industry standards.
From ACM TechNews
National Task Force Recommends Removing Race from Kidney Function Equation
A national task force is recommending the use of a new diagnostic equation for measuring kidney function that eliminates race from the algorithm.
From ACM TechNews
How SNPs Can Be Used to Detect Disease Pathways
Researchers have computationally harnessed single-nucleotide polymorphisms to identify disease pathways.
From ACM TechNews
LLNL Explores Laser Beam Shaping to Improve Metal 3D Printing
Researchers found that using Bessel beams reduced the likelihood of pore formation and "keyholing" in laser powder bed fusion, a high-power laser printing process.
From ACM TechNews
Capturing Light: Ergonomic Photodetector for the Trillion-Sensor Era
Researchers demonstrated a highly efficient system of photodetectors that can surmount the constraints of conventional light-to-frequency conversion circuits.
From ACM News
Messy, Incomplete U.S. Data Hobbles Pandemic Response
The nation's decentralized, underfunded reporting system hampers efforts to combat the coronavirus.
From ACM News
How Supercomputers Can Help Fix Our Wildfire Problem
Fires spread with a complexity that scientists can pick apart little by little, thanks to lasers, sensors, and some of the most powerful computers.
From ACM News
Active Defenders
How the new self-healing cybersecurity software works.
From ACM News
'Stalkerware' Apps Are Proliferating. Protect Yourself
These spyware apps record your conversations, location and everything you type, all while camouflaged as a calculator or calendar.
From ACM News
The Melting Face Emoji Has Already Won Us Over
Of the 37 new emojis approved this year, one stood out as a visual proxy for our collective malaise.
From ACM News
There's a Multibillion-Dollar Market for Your Phone's Location Data
A huge but little-known industry has cropped up around monetizing people's movements.
From ACM TechNews
FAA Technology Aims to Speed Takeoffs of Planes Idling on Runways
U.S. Federal Aviation Administration officials said the agency will deploy new software to more easily estimate when planes can taxi onto a runway and take off.
From ACM TechNews
Teams Develop Code to Coordinate Robots, Win $535,000 in Space Robotics Challenge
Seven teams that competed in the NASA Space Robotics Challenge were awarded a total of $535,000.
From ACM TechNews
When Accidents Happen, Drones Weigh Their Options
New research by scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is focused on gauging unmanned aerial vehicles' ability to recover from malfunctions.
From ACM TechNews
Risk Assessment Algorithms Can Unfairly Impact Court Decisions
A study suggests pretrial risk assessment algorithms increase the likelihood that judges will change their priorities in making pretrial decisions.
From ACM TechNews
Pandemic Pushes Chinese Tech Giants to Roll Out More Courier Robots
Chinese technology giants Alibaba, Meituan, and JD.com plan to increase their courier robot fleets fourfold to more than 2,000 by next year.
From ACM TechNews
How AI Completed Beethoven's Unfinished Tenth Symphony
Computer scientists, music historians, musicologists, and composers applied artificial intelligence to the task of completing Beethoven's unfinished Tenth Symphony.
From ACM News
How an 11-Foot-Tall 3D Printer Is Helping to Create a Community
Three-dimensional printing can create nearly any object. A partnership in Mexico is putting that theory to the test, building a village for residents living in poverty.
From ACM News
Epic Games Believes the Internet is Broken. This is Their Blueprint to Fix It.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney and other executives detail their plan for the metaverse and how it differs from Facebook's vision
From ACM News
Why Robots Can't Sew Your T-Shirt
Machines can print textiles, cut fabric, and fold clothes, but it's hard to train them to sew as fast and precisely as humans.
From ACM TechNews
Deep Learning Helps Predict Drug Combinations to Fight COVID-19
A research team used deep learning to identify drug combinations that can fight COVID-19.
From ACM TechNews
AI Technique Could Lead to Ways to Predict Cancer Prognosis, Treatment Response
An artificial intelligence technique can determine which neoantigens (cell surface peptides generated by cancer cells) are recognized by the immune system.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Discover Vulnerability in Widely-Used Method for Securing Phone Data
Researchers demonstrated how an attack on low-end Android phones targetted a standard encryption process.
From ACM News
The Pandemic is Testing the Limits of Face Recognition
Government use of face ID systems exploded during the pandemic—but tying it to critical services has left some people locked out at the moment they needed help the most.
From ACM News
Deep Learning's Diminishing Returns
The cost of improvement is becoming unsustainable.
From ACM News
Quantum Computing Hits the Desktop, No Cryo-Cooling Required
An Australian-born startup says it has developed a quantum microprocessor that runs happily at room temperature.
From ACM News
AI Calling ET: How Artificial Intelligence Supports the Search for Extraterrestrial Life
Researchers increasingly ask AI whether anybody is out there.
From ACM News
How Internet Pioneer Vint Cerf Illuminated Google's Misinformation Mess
In U.K. Parliament testimony, Google's chief Internet evangelist gave a frank explanation of why its systems can't always tell good information from bad.
From ACM TechNews
Robots Scurry Through Underground Scavenger Hunt to Advance Technology
Eight teams directed robots through an underground scavenger hunt in the final segment of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Subterranean Challenge.
From ACM TechNews
States at Disadvantage in Race to Recruit Cybersecurity Pros
U.S. states face a shortage of cybersecurity professionals and lack the deep pockets to compete with federal, global, and specialized cybersecurity companies.