October 2017 - Vol. 60 No. 10

Features

Opinion Editor's letter Oct 1 2017

The notion of what constitutes a profession has been studied extensively through exploration of its attributes. Common among these are a deep technical expertise, an essential, valued, societal contribution, and the need to adhere to high ethical and technical standards.

Andrew A. Chien

Computing Profession

Opinion Oct 1 2017

Six Education

I recently had the opportunity to join several thousand teachers in Southern California for an annual confab on teaching. I came away with a very different view of elementary and secondary education than I had going in.

Vinton G. Cerf

Computing Profession

Opinion Letters to the editor Oct 1 2017

Beyond Brute Force

In "The Science of Brute Force " (August 2017), Marjin J.H. Heule and Oliver Kullmann humorously asked whether a mathematician using brute force is really "a kind of barbaric monster."

CACM Staff

BLOG@CACM Oct 1 2017

Manipulating Word Representations, and Preparing Students For Coding Jobs?

Robin K. Hill mulls an aspect of natural language processing research, while Mark Guzdial ponders why coding is taught in public schools.

Robin K. Hill and Mark Guzdial

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

News Oct 1 2017

3D-Printing Human Body Parts

Bioprinting has generated bones, cartilage, and some muscles; hearts and livers are still years away.

Keith Kirkpatrick

Computing Applications

3D-Printing Human Body Parts, illustration

News Oct 1 2017

Digital Hearing

Advances in audio processing help separate the conversation from background noise.

Don Monroe

Architecture and Hardware

News Oct 1 2017

Portable Device Fears Show Power of Social Development

How do small screens impact young minds?

Chris Edwards

Computing Applications

Opinion Technology strategy and management Oct 1 2017

Amazon and Whole Foods: Follow the Strategy (and the Money)

Checking out the recent Amazon acquisition of Whole Foods.

Michael A. Cusumano

Computing Profession

Opinion Inside risks Oct 1 2017

The Real Risks of Artificial Intelligence

Incidents from the early days of AI research are instructive in the current AI environment.

David Lorge Parnas

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

The Real Risks of Artificial Intelligence, illustration

Opinion Economic and business dimensions Oct 1 2017

Fintech Platforms and Strategy

Integrating trust and automation in finance.

Vasant Dhar and Roger M. Stein

Computing Profession

FinTech Platforms and Strategy, illustration

Opinion Kode vicious Oct 1 2017

IoT: The Internet of Terror

If it seems like the sky is falling, that's because it is.

George V. Neville-Neil

Computing Applications

IoT: The Internet of Terror, illustration

Opinion Viewpoint Oct 1 2017

What Can Agile Methods Bring to High-Integrity Software Development?

Considering the issues and opportunities raised by Agile practices in the development of high-integrity software.

Roderick Chapman, Neil White, and Jim Woodcock

Computing Profession

Bring to High-Integrity Software Development? illustrative photo

Practice Oct 1 2017

Metaphors We Compute By

Code is a story that explains how to solve a particular problem.

Alvaro Videla

Computing Applications

Practice Oct 1 2017

Research For Practice: Technology For Underserved Communities; Personal Fabrication

Expert-curated guides to the best of CS research.

Peter Bailis, Tawanna Dillahunt, Stefanie Mueller, and Patrick Baudisch

Computing Applications

Practice Oct 1 2017

Four Ways to Make CS and IT More Immersive

Why the Bell curve hasn't transformed into a hockey stick.

Thomas A. Limoncelli

Computing Profession

Research and Advances Contributed articles Oct 1 2017

Barriers to Refactoring

Developers know refactoring improves their software, but many find themselves unable to do so when they want to.

Ewan Tempero, Tony Gorschek, and Lefteris Angelis

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Contributed articles Oct 1 2017

Millennials’ Attitudes Toward It Consumerization in the Workplace

Millennials entering the workforce ignore the risks of using privately owned devices on the job.

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Review articles Oct 1 2017

Internet Advertising: Technology, Ethics, and a Serious Difference of Opinion

Exploring the technical and ethical issues surrounding Internet advertising and ad blocking.

Stephen B. Wicker and Kolbeinn Karlsson

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Research highlights Oct 1 2017

Technical Perspective: Broadening and Deepening Query Optimization Yet Still Making Progress

"Multi-Objective Parametric Query Optimization," by Immanuel Trummer and Christoph Koch is a remarkable tour de force exploration of the combination of both parametric and multi-objective query optimization.

Jeffrey F. Naughton

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Research highlights Oct 1 2017

Multi-Objective Parametric Query Optimization

We propose a generalization of the classical database query optimization problem: multi-objective parametric query (MPQ) optimization.

Immanuel Trummer and Christoph Koch

Computing Applications

Multi-Objective Parametric Query Optimization, illustration

Research and Advances Research highlights Oct 1 2017

Technical Perspective: Shedding New Light on an Old Language Debate

"A Large-Scale Study of Programming Languages and Code Quality in GitHub," by Baishakhi Ray, et al., studies whether programming language choice and code quality are related.

Jeffrey S. Foster

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Research highlights Oct 1 2017

A Large-Scale Study of Programming Languages and Code Quality in Github

What is the effect of programming languages on software quality? In this study, we gather a very large data set from GitHub in an attempt to shed some empirical light on this question.

Baishakhi Ray, Daryl Posnett, Premkumar Devanbu, and Vladimir Filkov

Computing Applications

A Large-Scale Study of Programming Languages, illustration

Opinion Last byte Oct 1 2017

Partitioned Peace

Imagine a set of red and blue hill towns connected by a network of roads. When a person from a red town travels through a blue town or vice versa, things can get unpleasant.

Dennis Shasha

Systems and Networking

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