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 News
COVID-19 Response: New Jersey Urgently Needs COBOL Programmers (Yes, You Read That Correctly)
The danger of relying on COBOL despite its obsolescence is not a new issue.
From ACM TechNews
Scientists Develop 'Backpack' Computers to Track Wild Animals in Hard-to-Reach Habitats
A team of collaborated on the development of wireless attachable "backpack" computers that can be used to track tiny animals in hard-to-reach habitats.
From ACM TechNews
Robots Use Light Beams to Zap Hospital Viruses
A robotic system uses eight UV-C ultraviolet-light-emitting bulbs to destroy bacteria, viruses, and other harmful microbes.
From ACM News
CNNs Catch Animals in the Wild
Researchers are using convolutional neural networks to identify the few frames of interest among massive amounts of visual information.
From ACM News
Soil Sifters
Algorithms and supercomputers help tease out how soil microbes affect global climate.
From ACM News
A.I. Versus the Coronavirus
A new consortium of top scientists will be able to use some of the world's most advanced supercomputers to look for solutions.
From ACM TechNews
Big Data Helps Taiwan Fight Coronavirus
Taiwan has largely controlled the propagation of the coronavirus, which an international team of researchers credit mainly to the emergency deployment of big data...
From ACM TechNews
Synergy Emergence in Deep Reinforcement Motor Learning
Researchers have observed something similar to motor synergy in robotic agents using deep reinforcement learning algorithms.
From ACM TechNews
Windows Code-Execution Zero-day Is Under Active Exploit, Microsoft Warns
Microsoft has issued a warning that a Windows zero-day vulnerability is being exploited in "limited targeted attacks" to execute malicious code on fully updated...
From ACM TechNews
System Trains Driverless Cars in Simulation Before They Hit the Road
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have created a simulation system to train driverless cars prior to their deployment on actual streets.
From ACM TechNews
Computer Scientists Develop AI System that Predicts Air Pollution Levels
A new artificial intelligence system can predict air pollution levels as much as two days in advance.
From ACM TechNews
China to Launch National Blockchain Network in 100 Cities
An alliance of Chinese government groups, banks, and technology firms plans to launch one of the first blockchain networks constructed and maintained by a central...
From ACM TechNews
IBM Partners with White House to Direct Supercomputing Power for Coronavirus Research
IBM will help coordinate an initiative to supply more than 330 petaflops of computing power to scientists researching COVID-19.
From Communications of the ACM
Machine Learning, Meet Whiskey
Technologies are coming increasingly closer to approximating the human senses of taste and smell.
From ACM News
Coronavirus Highlights Strengths of Self-Driving Delivery Vehicles
With quarantines across China, one company is showing the usefulness of autonomous vehicles.
From ACM News
Intel to Release Neuromorphic Computing System
Pohoiki Springs, an experimental system to be rolled out this month, mimics the way human brains work to do computations faster with less energy
From ACM TechNews
U.S. Revises Passenger Safety Rules for Autonomous Vehicles
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is seeking comment on updated regulations meant to improve automotive passenger safety in autonomous vehicles...
From ACM TechNews
Introducing the Light-Operated Hard Drives of Tomorrow
Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne created a proof of concept platform for hard drives that will be smaller, faster, and more energy...
From ACM TechNews
Modern RAM Still Vulnerable to Rowhammer Attacks
Extensive mitigations deployed during the last six years have failed to eliminate modern random-access memory (RAM) cards' vulnerability to Rowhammer exploits. ...
From ACM TechNews