Communications of the ACM
An edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.
From ACM TechNews
Astrobee Performs First Autonomous Flight on the International Space Station
A National Aeronautics and Space Administration Astrobee robot is now up and running on the International Space Station (ISS).
From ACM TechNews
Robots Have a Hard Time Grasping "Adversarial Objects"
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have extended the concept of adversarial images to robot grasping, using physical objects designed to be...
From ACM TechNews
Early Warning System Predicts Risk of Online Students Dropping Out
Researchers in Spain have developed a predictive modeling system for personalized student dropout rates.
From ACM TechNews
Animal-AI Olympics Will Test AI on Intelligence Tasks Designed for Crows, Chimps
The University of Cambridge's Leverhulme Center for the Future of Intelligence and the Czech Republic's GoodAI are partnering to launch the Animal-AI Olympics. ...
From ACM News
Searching for the Perfect Artificial Synapse for AI
What's the best type of device from which to build a neural network? Of course, it should be fast, small, consume little power, have the ability to reliably store...
From ACM News
DeepMind Achieves Holy Grail: An AI That Can Master Games Like Chess and Go Without Human Help
DeepMind, the London-based subsidiary of Alphabet, has created a system that can quickly master any game in the class that includes chess, Go, and Shogi, and do...
From ACM TechNews
Robots Finally Learning to Clean the Bathroom
Researchers at the University of Koblenz-Landa in Germany developed a robotic system that was able to successfully clean at least 80% of the liquid from on and...
From ACM TechNews
This Robot Transforms Itself to Navigate an Obstacle Course
Researchers have created robots that can adapt to their environment based on centralized sensory processing, environmental perception, and decision-making software...
From ACM TechNews
Tiny Drones Team p to Open Doors
Researchers have developed palm-sized drones that can forcefully tug objects 40 times their own mass by anchoring themselves to the ground or to walls.
From ACM News
Baidu's AI Can Do Simultaneous Translation Between Any Two Languages
Would-be travelers of the galaxy, rejoice: The Chinese tech giant Baidu has invented a translation system that brings us one step closer to a software Babel fish...
From ACM TechNews
AI on a MEMS Device Brings Neuromorphic Computing to the Edge
Researchers have outfitted a micro-electromechanical system with artificial intelligence, enabling neuromorphic computing in a microscale device and bringing edge...
From ACM News
How Political Campaigns Weaponize Social Media Bots
In the summer of 2017, a group of young political activists in the United Kingdom figured out how to use the popular dating app Tinder to attract new supporters...
From ACM News
AI on a MEMS Device Brings Neuromorphic Computing to the Edge
In order to achieve the edge computing that people talk about in a host of applications including 5G networks and the Internet of Things (IoT), you need to pack...
From ACM TechNews
HyQ Steps Across Gaps Despite Getting Yanked Around
Researchers used a convolutional neural network to reduce the amount of time the HyQ quadruped robot needs to plan its foot placement by several orders of magnitude...
From ACM TechNews
This Tech Would Have Spotted the Secret Chinese Chip in Seconds
Researchers have developed a semiautomated system that could have identified in seconds malicious chips reportedly inserted into computer systems by the Chinese...
From ACM News
This Lens-less Camera Is Built Specially for AI and Computer Vision Programs
Cameras used to be their own devices with lenses and film and trips to the drug store to get the pictures developed. Then, they disappeared into phones, tablets...
From ACM News
A .S. Machine Recaptures the Supercomputing Crown
Today, U.S. supercomputer advocates are cheering, because for the first time since 2012, a U.S. supercomputer—Oak Ridge National Laboratory's newly installed ...
From ACM TechNews
AI Drone Learns to Detect Brawls
Researchers used deep learning to develop a drone surveillance system that automatically detects small groups of people fighting each other.
From ACM News
Hiding Information in Plain Text
Computer scientists have now invented a way to hide secret messages in ordinary text by imperceptibly changing the shapes of letters.
From ACM News