August 2017 - Vol. 60 No. 8

Features

Opinion Editor's letter Aug 1 2017

Building the Future Communications of the ACM

The Communications of the ACM team is dynamic; a collection of passionate leaders, making change and creating the future CACM through the actions, initiatives, and goals that we are pursuing today. In that vein, here are some of my ambitions for the Future CACM.

Andrew A. Chien

Computing Profession

Opinion Cerf's up Aug 1 2017

In Praise of Under-Specification?

It is interesting to contemplate whether the notion of under-specification that induces flexibility and anticipates new but unknown developments can be codified in a concrete way beyond the purely conceptual.

Vinton G. Cerf

Computing Applications

Opinion Letters to the editor Aug 1 2017

Embed Ethical Guidelines in Autonomous Weapons

As a combat veteran and more recently an industry technologist and university professor, I have observed with concern the increasing automation — and dehumanization — of warfare, a trend discussed in the "Potential and Peril" (June 2017).

CACM Staff

BLOG@CACM Aug 1 2017

How Adults Ages 60+ Are Learning to Code

Philip Guo discusses his project studying older adults that have chosen to learn computer programming.

Philip Guo

Computing Applications

News Aug 1 2017

Hacker-Proof Coding

Software verification helps find the faults, preventing hacks.

Esther Shein

Computing Applications

News Aug 1 2017

Why Virtual Reality Will Transform a Workplace Near You

A clutch of companies are changing how work gets done---by using virtual reality and augmented reality technologies.

Logan Kugler

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Why VR Will Transform a Workplace Near You, illustrative photo

News Aug 1 2017

AI in Contact Centers

Artificial intelligence technologies are being deployed to improve the customer service experience.

Keith Kirkpatrick

Computing Applications

News Aug 1 2017

Charles P. ‘Chuck’ Thacker: 1943-2017

Microsoft researcher Charles P. Thacker, awarded the 2009 ACM A.M. Turing Award, died Monday, June 12, at the age of 74, after a brief illness.

Lawrence M. Fisher

Computing Profession

Opinion Historical reflections Aug 1 2017

Prophets, Seers, and Pioneers

Reflections on historical prognostications for the future.

David P. Anderson

Computing Profession

Prophets, Seers, and Pioneers, illustrative photo

Opinion Education Aug 1 2017

Is the U.S. Education System Ready For CS For All?

Insights from a recent Google-Gallup national research study seeking to better understand the context of K--12 CS education.

Jennifer Wang

Computing Profession

Opinion Kode Vicious Aug 1 2017

The Observer Effect

Finding the balance between zero and maximum.

George V. Neville-Neil

Computing Applications

Opinion Viewpoint Aug 1 2017

The Natural Science of Computing

As unconventional computing comes of age, we believe a revolution is needed in our view of computer science.

Dominic Horsman, Vivien Kendon, and Susan Stepney

Computing Profession

Practice Aug 1 2017

Now That We Can Write Simultaneously, How Do We Use That to Our Advantage?

Word processors now make it possible for many authors to work on the same document concurrently. But what can they actually do?

Ricardo Olenewa, Gary M. Olson, Judith S. Olson, and Daniel M. Russell

Computing Applications

Now That We Can Write Simultaneously, illustration

Practice Aug 1 2017

Small-Data Computing: Correct Calculator Arithmetic

Rounding errors are usually avoidable, and sometimes we can afford to avoid them.

Hans-J. Boehm

Computing Applications

Small-Data Computing: Correct Calculator Arithmetic, illustration

Research and Advances Contributed articles Aug 1 2017

Turing’s Pre-War Analog Computers: The Fatherhood of the Modern Computer Revisited

Turing's machines of 1936 were a purely mathematical notion, not an exploration of possible blueprints for physical calculators.

Leo Corry

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Contributed articles Aug 1 2017

Data Science: Challenges and Directions

While it may not be possible to build a data brain identical to a human, data science can still aspire to imaginative machine thinking.

Longbing Cao

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Review articles Aug 1 2017

The Science of Brute Force

Mathematics solves problems by pen and paper. CS helps us to go far beyond that.

Marijn J. H. Heule and Oliver Kullmann

Architecture and Hardware

The Science of Brute Force, illustration

Research and Advances Research highlights Aug 1 2017

Technical Perspective: Unexpected Connections

The inherent scalability of an interface is the focus of "The Scalable Commutativity Rule" by Austin T. Clements, et al.

Marc Shapiro

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Research highlights Aug 1 2017

The Scalable Commutativity Rule: Designing Scalable Software For Multicore Processors

This paper introduces an interface-driven approach to building scalable software.

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Research highlights Aug 1 2017

Technical Perspective: Linking Form, Function, and Fabrication

To avoid costly feedback loops between design, engineering, and fabrication, research in computer graphics has recently tried to incorporate key aspects of function and fabrication into an "intelligent" shape modeling process. A great example for this trend is depicted in "Spin-It: Optimizing Moment of Inertia for Spinnable Objects."

Helmut Pottmann

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Research and Advances Research highlights Aug 1 2017

Spin-It: Optimizing Moment of Inertia For Spinnable Objects

In this article, we describe an algorithm to generate designs for spinning objects by optimizing their mass distribution.

Moritz Bächer, Bernd Bickel, Emily Whiting, and Olga Sorkine-Hornung

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Opinion Last byte Aug 1 2017

Turing’s Taxi

Ride with an autonomous AI cab driver that might actually know too much about where it's going . . .

Brian Clegg

Computing Applications

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