August 2015 - Vol. 58 No. 8

Features

Opinion Aug 1 2015

Why Doesn’t ACM Have a SIG For Theoretical Computer Science?

In 1992, Yuri Gurevich wrote, "It is amazing, however, how different computer science is, especially theoretical computer science, in Europe and the U.S." How did such a sharp division arise between TCS in North America and Europe?

Moshe Y. Vardi

Computing Applications

Opinion Aug 1 2015

Invention

I am on a brief holiday in the U.K. visiting stately homes and manor houses in Cotswolds. There is so much history and drama hidden in some of the mechanical designs in these ancient buildings

Vinton G. Cerf

Architecture and Hardware

Opinion Letters to the Editor Aug 1 2015

Not So Easy to Forget

Meg Leta Jones's "Forgetting Made (Too) Easy" (June 2015) raised an important concern about the Court of Justice of the European Union's Google Spain judgment. Google "is without any guidance as to which interests should trump others, when, and why," she wrote. This is not quite true.

CACM Staff

Computing Applications

BLOG@CACM Aug 1 2015

Plain Talk on Computing Education

Mark Guzdial considers how the variety of learning outcomes and definitions impacts the teaching of computer science.

Mark Guzdial

Computing Applications

News Aug 1 2015

Teaching Computers with Illusions

Exploring the ways human vision can be fooled is helping developers of machine vision.

Esther Shein

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

News Aug 1 2015

Touching the Virtual

Feeling the way across new frontiers at the interface of people and machines.

Logan Kugler

Computing Applications

News Aug 1 2015

The Moral Challenges of Driverless Cars

Autonomous vehicles will need to decide on a course of action when presented with multiple less-than-ideal outcomes.

Keith Kirkpatrick

Architecture and Hardware

The Moral Challenges of Driverless Cars, illustrative photo

Opinion Privacy and security Aug 1 2015

Security For Mobile and Cloud Frontiers in Healthcare

Designers and developers of healthcare information technologies must address preexisting security vulnerabilities and undiagnosed future threats.

David Kotz, Kevin Fu, Carl Gunter, and Avi Rubin

Computing Applications

Security for Mobile and Cloud Frontiers in Healthcare, illustration

Opinion Economic and business dimensions Aug 1 2015

Permissionless Innovation

Seeking a better approach to pharmaceutical research and development.

Henry Chesbrough and Marshall Van Alstyne

Computing Applications

Permissionless Innovation, illustrative photo

Opinion Kode Vicious Aug 1 2015

Hickory Dickory Doc

On null encryption and automated documentation.

George V. Neville-Neil

Computing Applications

Opinion Education Aug 1 2015

Understanding the U.S. Domestic Computer Science Ph.D. Pipeline

Two studies provide insights into how to increase the number of domestic doctoral students in U.S. computer science programs.

Susanne Hambrusch, Ran Libeskind-Hadas, and Eric Aaron

Computing Applications

Understanding the U.S. Domestic Computer Science Ph.D. Pipeline, illustrative photo

Opinion Viewpoint Aug 1 2015

Learning Through Computational Creativity

Improving learning and achievement in introductory computer science by incorporating creative thinking into the curriculum.

Computing Applications

Learning Through Computational Creativity, illustrative image

Practice Aug 1 2015

Testing Web Applications with State Objects

Use states to drive your tests.

Arie van Deursen

Computing Applications

Testing Web Applications with State Objects, illustrative photo

Practice Aug 1 2015

From the EDVAC to WEBVACs

Cloud computing for computer scientists.

Daniel C. Wang

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Contributed articles Aug 1 2015

Programming the Quantum Future

The Quipper language offers a unified general-purpose programming framework for quantum computation.

Architecture and Hardware

Programming the Quantum Future, illustration

Research and Advances Contributed articles Aug 1 2015

Surveillance and Falsification Implications For Open Source Intelligence Investigations

Legitimacy of surveillance is crucial to safeguarding validity of OSINT data as a tool for law-enforcement agencies.

Petra Saskia Bayerl and Babak Akhgar

Computing Applications

Surveillance and Falsification Implications, illustration

Research and Advances Contributed articles Aug 1 2015

Challenges Deploying Complex Technologies in a Traditional Organization

The National Palace Museum in Taiwan had to partner with experienced cloud providers to deliver television-quality exhibits.

Rua-Huan Tsaih, David C. Yen, and Yu-Chien Chang

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Review articles Aug 1 2015

Network Science, Web Science, and Internet Science

Exploring three interdisciplinary areas and the extent to which they overlap. Are they all part of the same larger domain?

Computing Applications

Network Science, Web Science, and Internet Science, illustration

Research and Advances Research highlights Aug 1 2015

Technical Perspective: Corralling Crowd Power

"Soylent: A Word Processor with a Crowd Inside," introduces an exciting vision of using crowd workers to power an interactive system — here, a word processor — in accomplishing complex cognitive tasks.

Aniket (Niki) Kittur

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Research highlights Aug 1 2015

Soylent: A Word Processor with a Crowd Inside

This paper introduces architectural and interaction patterns for integrating crowdsourced human contributions directly into user interfaces.

Computing Applications

Soylent: A Word Processor with a Crowd Inside, illustration

Opinion Last byte Aug 1 2015

Upstart Puzzles: Brighten Up

You are given two bags, each containing some number NumPerBag of flares. You know there are NumBad flares in one of the bags but not which bag. The other bag has all good flares. Each time you test a flare, you use it up.

Dennis Shasha

Computing Applications

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