Communications of the ACM
Blinding the Watchman
Internet constellations could thwart killer asteroid discovery algorithms.
From ACM NewsAn 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
Can an Led-Filled "robot Garden" Make Coding More Accessible?
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers say their new tablet-operated system serves as a visual embodiment of their latest work in distributed computing...
From ACM News
Smarter Multicore Chips
Computer chips' clocks have stopped getting faster. To keep delivering performance improvements, chipmakers are instead giving chips more processing units, or cores...
From ACM News
Parallelizing Common Algorithms
Every undergraduate computer-science major takes a course on data structures, which describes different ways of organizing data in a computer’s memory.
From ACM TechNews
Qubits With Staying Power
Researchers say they have developed a new technique that could enable the indefinite extension of quantum-secured communication links.
From ACM News
Optimizing Optimization Algorithms
Optimization algorithms, which try to find the minimum values of mathematical functions, are everywhere in engineering. Among other things, they're used to evaluate...
From ACM News
Vision System For Household Robots
For household robots ever to be practical, they'll need to be able to recognize the objects they're supposed to manipulate.
From ACM News
New Way to Turn Genes On
Using a gene-editing system originally developed to delete specific genes, MIT researchers have now shown that they can reliably turn on any gene of their choosing...
From ACM News
Detecting Gases Wirelessly and Cheaply
MIT chemists have devised a new way to wirelessly detect hazardous gases and environmental pollutants, using a simple sensor that can be read by a smartphone.
From ACM TechNews
New Device Could Make Large Biological Circuits Practical
Researchers have developed a new kind of load driver that could enable biological circuits to behave almost as predictably as electronic circuits.
From ACM TechNews
Harnessing Error-Prone Chips
Chisel is a new system that lets programmers identify sections of their code that can tolerate small errors.
From ACM TechNews
Superconducting Circuits, Simplified
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have developed a nanocryotron , a computing circuit based on the cryotron.
From ACM News
Solid Nanoparticles Can Deform Like a Liquid
A surprising phenomenon has been found in metal nanoparticles: They appear, from the outside, to be liquid droplets, wobbling and readily changing shape, while...
From ACM TechNews
nderwater Robot For Port Security
A new submersible robot has a flattened panel on one side so it can slide along an underwater surface to perform ultrasound scans.
From ACM TechNews
Fingertip Sensor Gives Robot nprecedented Dexterity
Researchers have developed a robot equipped with tactile sensors that enable it to grasp a USB cable draped over a hook and insert it into a USB port.
From ACM TechNews
Will Tomorrow's Robots Move Like Snakes?
Researchers have developed a soft robotic arm, inspired by octopus tentacles, that can snake through a pipelike environment without a human operator.
From ACM News
Where to Grab Space Debris
Objects in space tend to spin—and spin in a way that's totally different from the way they spin on earth.
From ACM News
Origami Robot Folds Itself p, Crawls Away
For years, a team of researchers at MIT and Harvard University has been working on origami robots—reconfigurable robots that would be able to fold themselves into...
From ACM TechNews
Squishy Robots
A new phase-change material built from wax and foam, that is capable of switching between hard and soft states, could be used to construct inexpensive robots.
From ACM TechNews
Drone Lighting: Autonomous Vehicles Could Automatically Assume the Right Positions for Photographic Lighting
A team of researchers is developing algorithms to let photographers use camera-mounted controls to guide drone-mounted lights into just the right position.
From ACM Opinion