May 2021 - Vol. 64 No. 5

Features

Opinion Departments May 1 2021

Three-way conflict arises in professional societies, such as ACM, which have members, elected officials, and permanent staff. Aligning the interests of these three groups can be challenging.

Moshe Y. Vardi

Computing Applications

Opinion Editor's letter May 1 2021

In Response to ‘Vardi’s Insights’

Moshe Vardi's column, "The Agency Trilemma and ACM," misrepresents some decisions and actions made in regard to ACM's Open Access model.

Cherri M. Pancake and Andrew A. Chien

Computing Applications

Careers Career paths in computing May 1 2021

Promote Sustainability and Help Underserved Communities

Sustainability is the greatest challenge threatening mankind. The U.N.'s Sustainable Development Goals promote solutions for this threat. Computing, through a series of serendipitous events, has enabled me to join this fight.

Caven Cade Mitchell

Computing Profession

BLOG@CACM May 1 2021

Teaching Other Teachers How to Teach CS Better

Mark Guzdial shares how he assesses the efforts of other computer science teachers.

Mark Guzdial

Education

News May 1 2021

A Satisfying Result

Formulating a decades-old geometric conjecture as a satisfiability problem opened the door to its final resolution.

Don Monroe

News May 1 2021

Catching the Fakes

Applying neural networks to images helps identify counterfeit goods.

Neil Savage

Architecture and Hardware

words 'authentic' and 'fake' under magnifying glass, illustration

News May 1 2021

A Traffic Cop for Low Earth Orbit

Who will be the space traffic controller for orbiting objects?

Keith Kirkpatrick

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Opinion Security May 1 2021

Trustworthy Scientific Computing

Addressing the trust issues underlying the current limits on data sharing.

Sean Peisert

Computing Applications

green hand under colored blocks, illustration

Opinion Law and technology May 1 2021

Software Professionals, Malpractice Law, and Codes of Ethics

In pursuit of professional status for computing professionals.

Bryan H. Choi

Architecture and Hardware

framed diplomas and certificates, illustration

Opinion Education May 1 2021

CS Unplugged or Coding Classes?

Perhaps a more appropriate question is 'Why not both'?

Tim Bell

Computing Profession

Opinion Viewpoint May 1 2021

Understanding Law and the Rule of Law: A Plea to Augment CS Curricula

Why law matters for computer scientists and other folk.

Mireille Hildebrandt

Architecture and Hardware

Opinion Viewpoint May 1 2021

The 10 Best Practices for Remote Software Engineering

Focusing on the human element of remote software engineer productivity.

Vanessa Sochat

Computing Applications

female in work and leisure settings, illustration

Opinion Viewpoint May 1 2021

Let’s Be Honest

Seeking to rectify the two mutually exclusive ways of comparing computational power — encoding and simulation.

Nachum Dershowitz

Computing Applications

Practice May 1 2021

Enclaves in the Clouds

Legal considerations and broader implications

Jatinder Singh, Jennifer Cobbe, Do Le Quoc, and Zahra Tarkhani

Computing Profession

white birds, fluffy clouds, and 'TEE' chip, illustration

Practice May 1 2021

Battery Day

A closer look at the technology that makes portable electronics possible.

Jessie Frazelle

Architecture and Hardware

charging port on hood of electric vehicle

Research and Advances Contributed articles May 1 2021

Implementing Insider Defenses

How to avoid insider cyber-attacks by creating a corporate culture that infuses trust.

Eric Grosse, Fred B. Schneider, and Lynette L. Millett

Security and Privacy

worker portraits on a shield, illustration

Research and Advances Contributed articles May 1 2021

HCDA: From Computational Thinking to a Generalized Thinking Paradigm

As a new era in computing emerges, so too must our fundamental thinking patterns.

Yuhang Liu, Xian-He Sun, Yang Wang, and Yungang Bao

Architecture and Hardware

figure with text of four foundational thinking patterns

Research and Advances Contributed articles May 1 2021

What Serverless Computing Is and Should Become: The Next Phase of Cloud Computing

The evolution that serverless computing represents, the economic forces that shape it, why it could fail, and how it might fulfill its potential.

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Review articles May 1 2021

Automata Modulo Theories

Symbolic automata better balances how automata are implemented in practice.

Loris D'Antoni and Margus Veanes

Systems and Networking

Research and Advances Research highlights May 1 2021

Technical Perspective: A Logical Step Toward the Graph Isomorphism Problem

In "Isomorphism, Canonization, and Definability for Graphs of Bounded Rank Width," Grohe and Neuen show that the Weisfeiler-Leman algorithm in its plain form solves the isomorphism problem for bounded-rank width graphs.

Pascal Schweitzer

Systems and Networking

Research and Advances Research highlights May 1 2021

Isomorphism, Canonization, and Definability for Graphs of Bounded Rank Width

In this paper we study the graph isomorphism problem and the closely related graph canonization problem as well as logical definability and descriptive complexity on graph classes of bounded rank width.

Martin Grohe and Daniel Neuen

Systems and Networking

Research and Advances Research highlights May 1 2021

Technical Perspective: Robust Statistics Tackle New Problems

"Robustness Meets Algorithms," by Ilias Diakonikolas, et al., represents the beginning of a long and productive line of work on robust statistics in high dimensions.

Jacob S. Steinhardt

Systems and Networking

Research and Advances Research highlights May 1 2021

Robustness Meets Algorithms

We give the first efficient algorithm for estimating the parameters of a high-dimensional Gaussian that is able to tolerate a constant fraction of corruptions that is independent of the dimension.

Systems and Networking

flow-chart image and sound waves, illustration

Opinion Last byte May 1 2021

Behold the Ch!Ld

Opportunity can come calling when you least expect it.

P-Ray

Computing Applications

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