Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
January 2021
From ACM News
LAMBDA: The Ultimate Excel Worksheet Function
Lambda allows users to define new functions written in Excel's own formula language.
From ACM TechNews
Chess Engine Sacrifices Mastery to Mimic Human Play
A team of researchers has developed an artificial intelligence chess engine that is trained to play like, rather than beat, humans.
From ACM TechNews
Women Primed to Fill Cybersecurity Talent Gap
Cybersecurity analysts are in great demand thanks to the surge in remote work due to the pandemic; hiring more women can help narrow the talent gap.
From ACM News
They Found a Way to Limit Big Tech’s Power: Using the Design of Bitcoin
Companies inspired by the cryptocurrency are creating social networks, storing online content and hosting websites without any central authority.
From ACM TechNews
AI Set to Replace Humans in Cybersecurity by 2030, Says Trend Micro Survey
In a survey of information technology leaders, 41% of respondents expect artificial intelligence to take over their roles by 2030.
From ACM TechNews
ML Method Makes Better Predictions of Material Properties Using Low Quality Data
Nanoengineers have developed a new machine learning method that uses low-quality data to predict material properties with greater accuracy than existing models.
From ACM TechNews
MeitY Collaborates With Amazon to Set Up India's First Quantum Computing Lab
India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said it is collaborating with Amazon Web Services to develop a Quantum Computing Applications Lab.
From ACM News
'Are You Real?'
An ecosystem is emerging for ‘digital human’ development.
From ACM News
Ethical-source Movement Opens New Open-source Organization
Ethical-source leaders are trying to find more support for their open-source approach by creating the Organization for Ethical Source.
From ACM TechNews
How Lobsters Can Help Make Stronger 3D-Printed Concrete
Special three-dimensional printing patterns designed by researchers at Australia's Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology were inspired by lobster shells.
From ACM TechNews
Smart Algorithm Bursts Social Networks' 'Filter Bubbles'
Finnish and Danish researchers have developed an algorithm that boosts diversity of exposure on social networks, while still ensuring widely shared content.
From ACM TechNews
Do Simulations Represent the Real World at the Atomic Scale?
Scientists have developed a validation protocol for simulations of the atomic structure of an interface between a solid metallic oxide and liquid water.
From ACM TechNews
DNSpooq Lets Attackers Poison DNS Cache Records
Researchers have uncovered seven vulnerabilities that affect Dnsmasq, a domain name system forwarding client for *NIX-based operating systems.
From ACM TechNews
How to Train a Robot (Using AI and Supercomputers)
Computer scientists are using generative adversarial networks to train robots about objects.
From ACM TechNews
On the 100th Anniversary of 'Robot,' They're Finally Taking Over
Robot technology in many ways hassurpassed the vision presented in Karel Capek's play "R.U.R." ("Rossum's Universal Robots"), which introduced the word "robot" a century ago.
From ACM News
How England Implemented its Computer Science Education Program
Computer science concepts have been part of the official English curriculum for over a decade, but reforms have encouraged wider participation in the last six years.
From ACM News
Google Agrees to Pay French Publishers for News
The agreement comes after several months of talks between Google France and France's Alliance de la Presse d'Information Generale.
From ACM TechNews
Optimizing Traffic Signals to Reduce Intersection Wait Times
Researchers at Texas A&M University and the U.K.'s University of Edinburgh have developed a system that uses machine learning to optimize the timing of traffic signals.
From ACM TechNews
Jellyfish-Inspired Robot Could Be Used to Explore Coral Reefs, Archaeological Sites
A robot developed by researchers at the U.K.'s University of Edinburgh and University of Southampton mimics the efficient swimming movements of the moon jellyfish.
From ACM TechNews
Fake Collaboration Apps Steal Data as Staff Struggle with Home-Working Security
According to cybersecurity company Wandera's Cloud Security Report 2021, malware attacks increasingly targeted remote workers last year.
From ACM TechNews
Facebook AI Predicts Likelihood of Worsening Covid Symptoms
Researchers at Facebook claim to have developed software that can forecast the probability of a Covid-19 patient's symptoms escalating, based on their chest x-rays.
From ACM TechNews
Appreciating a Flower's Texture, Color, Shape Leads to Better Drone Landings
A new optical flow-based learning process lets robots calculate distances through the visual appearance of objects in view.
From ACM News
Google-Linked Balloon Project to Provide Cell Service Will Close
Begun nearly a decade ago, Loon was one of the company's high-profile, cutting-edge efforts. But it was difficult to turn into a business.
From ACM News
ACM TechNews Top Articles of 2020
Once again, the 10 most-clicked-on items in ACM TechNews during 2020 included more than a bit of coverage on programming and programming languages.
From ACM TechNews
How 3D Printing Is Helping CERN Scientists Upgrade the World's Largest Machine
Scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research have spent the past five years working to upgrade to the large hadron collider, the largest particle accelerator ever built.
From ACM TechNews
Autonomous Racing Is Coming to Indianapolis With the Indy Autonomous Challenge
The Indy Autonomous Challenge, announced during the 2021 CES show, will be a spec race with mechanically identical cars, and software that each team hopes will give it a competitive edge.
From ACM TechNews
Hackers Used Four Zero-Days to Infect Windows, Android Devices
Investigators with Google's Project Zero exploit research team uncovered a hacking campaign that used four zero-day exploits to install malware on Android and Windows devices.
From ACM TechNews
AI Could Train Your Dog How to Sit
A prototype artificial intelligence developed by Colorado State University researchers could train dogs while their owners are out.
From ACM News
Superintelligent AI May Be Impossible to Control; That's the Good News
Postcard from the 23rd century: Not even possible to know if an AI is superintelligent, much less stop it.
From ACM News
Spotting High-Risk Behavior Online
Using machine learning to identify signs of dangerous behavior on social media.