May 2016 - Vol. 59 No. 5

Features

Opinion May 1 2016

The Moral Imperative of Artificial Intelligence

The big news on March 12 of this year was of the Go-playing AI-system AlphaGo securing victory against world champion Lee Se-dol. AlphaGo's victory is a stunning achievement and another milestone in the inexorable march of AI research.

Moshe Y. Vardi

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Opinion May 1 2016

The IANA Transition

This month I explore the proposal sent in March 2016 by ICANN to the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Telecommunication and Information Agency (NTIA) to end the long-standing contractual relationship between ICANN and NTIA for the conduct of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority functions.

Vinton G. Cerf

Computing Profession

Opinion Letters to the Editor May 1 2016

Why All Writs Is a Trojan Horse

Citing the All Writs act as a way to give the government the power to compel companies to redesign or reimplement their electronic products to government specifications represents a threat to everyone's civil liberties.

CACM Staff

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

News May 1 2016

ACM’s 2016 General Election: Please Take This Opportunity to Vote

Meet the candidates who introduce their plans — and stands — for the Association.

CACM Staff

Computing Profession

BLOG@CACM May 1 2016

Bringing Computer Science to U.S. Schools, State By State

Mark Guzdial considers the crucial role of states in Computer Science for All.

Mark Guzdial

Computing Profession

News May 1 2016

Silicon Photonics: Ready to Go the Distance?

Processes for making CMOS chips are adapted for optical components.

Don Monroe

Architecture and Hardware

News May 1 2016

Cybersecurity Gets Smart

Researchers aim to apply artificial intelligence and machine-learning methods to take cybersecurity to a new, higher, and better level.

Samuel Greengard

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

News May 1 2016

Coding as Sport

Programming competitions help identify and reward those who excel in coding.

Keith Kirkpatrick

Computing Applications

Opinion Law and technology May 1 2016

The Internet of Things We Don’t Own?

Who will control the 'ordinary pursuits of life' in the digital economy?

Jason Schultz

Computing Profession

The Internet of Things We Don't Own?, illustrative collage

Opinion Education May 1 2016

Beyond Blocks: Syntax and Semantics

How the future of general-purpose programming tools could include blocks-based structured editing, and how we should study students transitioning to text-based programming tools.

R. Benjamin Shapiro and Matthew Ahrens

Computing Profession

middle schoolers program BlockyTalky synthesizer

Opinion Economic and business dimensions May 1 2016

Do Patent Commons and Standards-Setting Organizations Help Navigate Patent Thickets?

Examining the institutions underlying the patent system for information and communication technologies.

Wen Wen and Chris Forman

Computing Applications

Do Patent Commons and Standards-Setting Organizations Help Navigate Patent Thickets?, illustrative photo

Opinion Historical reflections May 1 2016

Preserving Hybrid Objects

Brutal lessons from contemporary art.

David P. Anderson

Computing Applications

Michael Takeo Magruder's 'Data Flower (Prototype I)'

Opinion Viewpoint May 1 2016

How to Increase the Security of Smart Buildings?

Surveying unresolved security problems for automated buildings.

Steffen Wendzel

Security and Privacy

How to Increase the Security of Smart Buildings?, illustration

Practice May 1 2016

Borg, Omega, and Kubernetes

Lessons learned from three container-management systems over a decade.

Computing Applications

Borg, Omega, and Kubernetes, illustration

Practice May 1 2016

Delegation as Art

Be someone who makes everyone else better.

Kate Matsudaira

Computing Profession

Practice May 1 2016

Use-Case 2.0

The hub of software development.

Ivar Jacobson, Ian Spence, and Brian Kerr

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Contributed articles May 1 2016

The Challenges of Partially Automated Driving

Car automation promises to free our hands from the steering wheel but might demand more from our minds.

Stephen M. Casner, Edwin L. Hutchins, and Don Norman

Architecture and Hardware

The Challenges of Partially Automated Driving, illustrative photo

Research and Advances Contributed articles May 1 2016

Parallel Graph Analytics

Data-centric abstractions and execution strategies are needed to exploit parallelism in large-scale graph analytics.

Andrew Lenharth, Donald Nguyen, and Keshav Pingali

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Contributed articles May 1 2016

Static Presentation Consistency Issues in Smartphone Mapping Apps

Comparing smartphone mapping apps leads to unexpected surprises.

Hanan Samet, Sarana Nutanong, and Brendan C. Fruin

Computing Applications

Static Presentation Consistency Issues in Smartphone Mapping Apps, illustration

Research and Advances Review articles May 1 2016

A Survey of Robotic Musicianship

Reviewing the technologies that enable robot musicians to jam.

Mason Bretan and Gil Weinberg

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Research highlights May 1 2016

Technical Perspective: A Breakthrough in Software Obfuscation

In "Hiding Secrets in Software," Garg et al. construct a "one-way compiler" of the type envisioned by Diffie and Hellman.

Boaz Barak

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Research highlights May 1 2016

Hiding Secrets in Software: A Cryptographic Approach to Program Obfuscation

Can we hide secrets in software? Can we make programs unintelligible while preserving their functionality? Why would we even want to do this? In this article, we describe some rigorous cryptographic answers to these quasi-philosophical questions.

Security and Privacy

Hiding Secrets in Software, illustration

Research and Advances Research highlights May 1 2016

Technical Perspective: Software Is Natural

"On the Naturalness of Software" by Hindle et al. takes an entirely new approach to providing tools to help build software.

Gail C. Murphy

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Research and Advances Research highlights May 1 2016

On the Naturalness of Software

We begin with the conjecture that most software is natural, with all the attendant constraints and limitations — and thus, like natural language, it is also likely to be repetitive and predictable.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

On the Naturalness of Software, illustration

Opinion Last byte May 1 2016

Future Tense: Becoming a Multi-Planet Species

Imagine hyper-realistic virtual space exploration limited only by the data we are able to collect.

Louis Friedman

Architecture and Hardware

Becoming a Multi-Planet Species, illustration

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