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An edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.


SETI Researchers Want to End the Alien-Detection Hype
From ACM News

SETI Researchers Want to End the Alien-Detection Hype

Researchers looking for signals from technologically advanced aliens pick up countless strange pings—but so far, nothing has convinced them that a message really...

An AI-Driven Robot Hand Spent a Hundred Years Teaching Itself to Rotate a Cube
From ACM News

An AI-Driven Robot Hand Spent a Hundred Years Teaching Itself to Rotate a Cube

AI researchers have demonstrated a self-teaching algorithm that gives a robot hand remarkable new dexterity.

Beyond Silicon: $1.5-billion ­.S. Program Aims to Spur New Types of Computer Chips
From ACM TechNews

Beyond Silicon: $1.5-billion ­.S. Program Aims to Spur New Types of Computer Chips

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has announced $75 million in new grants to revitalize the computer chip industry.

Neural Network Implemented with Light Instead of Electrons
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...

Cell-Sized Robots Can Sense Their Environment
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...

How Robot Hands Are Evolving to Do What Ours Can
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.

Scientists Perfect Technique to Boost Capacity of Computer Storage a Thousandfold
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.

The Hackers Teaching Old DNA Sequencers New Tricks
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...

Bug-Sized Robot Competitors to Swarm DARPA's 'Robot Olympics'
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...

World's Largest Robot Hauls Ore Through Western Australia
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.

The Ethics of Computer Science: This Researcher Has a Controversial Proposal
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...

How They Did It (and Will Likely Try Again): GR­ Hackers vs. ­S Elections
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...

DARPA Seeks ­nderground Mapping Capability
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.

Future Electronic Components to Be Printed Like Newspapers
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.

A Fault-Tolerant System for Stopping 'Leaks' in Quantum Computers
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.

Wild About Tech, China Even Loves Robot Waiters That Can't Serve
From ACM News

Wild About Tech, China Even Loves Robot Waiters That Can't Serve

The mind-reading headsets won't read minds.

Rethinking Autonomous Vehicles
From ACM News

Rethinking Autonomous Vehicles

Consumer fears intensify as self-driving car fatalities dent the driverless dream.

There's Water on Mars! Signs of Buried Lake Tantalize Scientists
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.

Hordes of Research Robots Could Be Hijacked for Fun and Sabotage
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.

Who Just Beat the Bay Area in Tech Jobs? Toronto
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...
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