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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.


Robot Arm Punches Human to Obey Asimov's Rules
From ACM News

Robot Arm Punches Human to Obey Asimov's Rules

Isaac Asimov would probably have been horrified at the experiments under way in a robotics lab in Slovenia. There, a powerful robot has been hitting people over...

Study Shows Why It's Hard to Crash the Electric Grid
From ACM News

Study Shows Why It's Hard to Crash the Electric Grid

A recent study accounting for the two most important laws of physics governing the flow of electricity shows why terrorists would have a hard time bringing down...

Robots Guarding U.S. Nuclear Stockpile
From ACM News

Robots Guarding U.S. Nuclear Stockpile

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration recently announced that it has started using autonomous robot vehicles to patrol the vast desert surrounding...

Planar Battery Could Help Integrate Solar, Wind Power Into the Grid
From ACM News

Planar Battery Could Help Integrate Solar, Wind Power Into the Grid

A flat sodium-nickel chloride battery could deliver 30 percent more power at lower temperatures than its cylindrical counterpart, making it a viable alternative...

Electronics Breakthrough Could Revolutionize Memory Chips
From ACM News

Electronics Breakthrough Could Revolutionize Memory Chips

Rice University graduate student Jun Yao's research with silicon-oxide circuits could be a game-changer in nanoelectronics.

From ACM TechNews

Multifunctional Smart Sensors and High-Power Devices on a Computer Chip

Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a process for integrating gallium nitride (GaN) on silicon to create a hybrid computer chip. This...

A Tracking Device That Fits on the Head of a Pin
From ACM TechNews

A Tracking Device That Fits on the Head of a Pin

Tel Aviv University researchers have developed nano-sized optical gyroscopes that can fit on standard-sized computer chips without compromising their sensitivity...

Futuristic Computing Designs Inside Beetle Scales
From ACM TechNews

Futuristic Computing Designs Inside Beetle Scales

Brigham Young University researchers are studying beetle scales to develop designs for future optical computers. 

New Type of Liquid Crystal Promises to Improve Performance of Digital Displays
From ACM News

New Type of Liquid Crystal Promises to Improve Performance of Digital Displays

Chemists at Vanderbilt University have created a new class of liquid crystals with unique electrical properties that could improve the performance of digital displays...

From ACM News

One Goal: 10 Quadrillion Calculations

Installation has begun in Kobe, Japan, on a government-funded supercomputer project, aimed at giving Japan the world's fastest computer, the "K Computer," which...

Underwater Robot Swims Free Thanks to Wireless Controller
From ACM TechNews

Underwater Robot Swims Free Thanks to Wireless Controller

A team at York University has designed and built a waterproof tablet for wirelessly controlling the underwater robot AQUA, which is designed to collect data from...

From ACM News

Multicore May Not Be So Scary

Research suggests that the free operating system Linux will keep up with the addition of more "cores," or processing units, to computer chips.

Should Code Be Released?
From Communications of the ACM

Should Code Be Released?

Software code can provide important insights into the results of research, but it's up to individual scientists whether their code is released---and many opt not...

Personal Fabrication
From Communications of the ACM

Personal Fabrication

Open source 3D printers could herald the start of a new industrial revolution.

Linear Logic
From Communications of the ACM

Linear Logic

A novel approach to computational logic is reaching maturity, opening up opening up new vistas in programming languages, proof nets, and security applications.

Growing Nanowires Horizontally Yields New Benefit: 'nano-Leds'
From ACM News

Growing Nanowires Horizontally Yields New Benefit: 'nano-Leds'

While refining their novel method for making nanoscale wires, chemists at NIST discovered an unexpected bonus—a new way to create nanowires that produce light similar...

Vigilant Camera Eye
From ACM TechNews

Vigilant Camera Eye

Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology have developed an automated camera system that replicates some functions of the human...

From ACM News

Fujitsu Begins Shipping 'k' Computer, Japan's Next-Generation Supercomputer

Fujitsu has begun shipping the computing units for Japan's Next-Generation Supercomputer, nicknamed the "K"  computer. The "K" computer is a central part of the...

First Improvement of Fundamental Algorithm in 10 Years
From ACM News

First Improvement of Fundamental Algorithm in 10 Years

The max-flow problem, which is ubiquitous in network analysis, scheduling, and logistics, can now be solved more efficiently than ever.

Study: Servers Run Well Around Zero Degrees
From ACM TechNews

Study: Servers Run Well Around Zero Degrees

Researchers in Finland are studying the use of outdoor air to cool data centers in northern climates. They have been running servers in a tent on a roof terrace...
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