Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
April 2019
From ACM TechNews
High-Tech Collision Warnings, No Matter How Smart Your Car Is
Research suggests older vehicles can be equipped with high-tech systems to make them safer.
From ACM TechNews
Army Researchers Identify New Way to Improve Cybersecurity
Scientists may have identified a new technique for strengthening network cybersecurity.
From ACM TechNews
Home Robot Control for People With Disabilities
Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have developed an augmented reality interface to help disabled individuals control complex assistive robots.
From ACM TechNews
Transparent Architecture
Researchers have devised software that enables simulations and fine-grained analyses of real estate that can be made accessible to developers, architects, and real estate firms.
From ACM TechNews
VA Looks to 3D-Printing to Improve Veteran Care
A medical team at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is pioneering new ways to use three-dimensional printing.
From ACM News
Cracking the Crypto War
Ray Ozzie thinks he has an approach for accessing encrypted devices that attains the impossible: it satisfies both law enforcement and privacy purists.
From ACM News
How WhatsApp, FaceTime and Other Encryption Apps Shaped the Outcome of the Mueller Report
Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III detailed multiple contacts among Russian operatives and associates of President Trump in the report made public Thursday. But Mueller repeatedly also lamented what he couldn't learn—because…
From ACM TechNews
New Algorithm Could Save Thousands of Animals From Toxic Testing
Rutgers University researchers designed an algorithm to test for chemical toxicity to benefit workers, and potentially sparing thousands of animals from being experimental subjects.
From ACM TechNews
Aviation Automation Climbs New Heights With ALIAS
DARPA's Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) project aims to develop autonomous artificial intelligences to improve flight safety and performance in battlefield operations.
From ACM TechNews
A Biosynthetic Dual-Core Cell Computer
Researchers at ETH Zurich in Switzerland have integrated two CRISPR-Cas9-based core processors into human cells, marking a significant breakthrough toward creating powerful biocomputers.
From ACM TechNews
Firefighters Had Secret Weapon When Notre Dame Caught Fire: A Robot Named 'Colossus'
Paris firefighters used a 1,100-pound, tank-like robot to mitigate damage to Notre Dame cathedral and prevent the conflagration from spreading further by entering environments too hazardous for humans.
From ACM News
If Your Image Is Online, It Might Be Training Facial-Recognition AI
The photo is undeniably cute: a mom and a dad—he with a stubbly beard and rimless glasses, she with choppy brown hair and a wide grin—goofing around and eating ice cream with their two toddler daughters.
From ACM News
Algorithms Spot Millions of California's Tiniest Quakes in Historical Data
When it comes to earthquakes, large, destructive ones dominate the headlines.
From ACM News
How 5G Drove Moves by Apple, Qualcomm and Intel
Apple Inc and Qualcomm Inc on Tuesday settled an acrimonious two-year legal dispute. Shortly afterward, Intel Corp said it will exit the smartphone modem chip business.
From ACM TechNews
UT Students Develop Software to Help Satellites Seek Objects
Researchers have developed navigation software for a satellite launched Tuesday with a resupply mission to the International Space Station.
From ACM TechNews
The Hunt for Alien Life Starts in Earth's Most Extreme Places
Scientists are using advanced technology to explore extreme environments on Earth to seek out and examine resilient microorganisms.
From ACM TechNews
Can a Computer Write a Script? Machine Learning Goes Hollywood
The idea of using machine learning programs to help write scripts and other tasks is becoming increasingly popular in Hollywood.
From ACM News
YouTube's Notre Dame-9/11 Flub Highlights AI's Blind Spots
YouTube might need a few more humans. The machines whose job is to tamp down conspiracy theories are not cutting it just yet.
From ACM News
World’s Largest Quantum Computer Doubles Down
D-Wave unveils an upgraded quantum computer featuring more than twice the qubits.
From ACM News
Craftsmen Built Notre Dame Eight Centuries Ago. Now It May Be Up to Robots to Save It.
As the first images of charred wreckage inside the Notre Dame cathedral appeared online Tuesday, engineers around the world said one observation was already clear: to return the ancient structure to its glorious past, builders…
From ACM News
NASA's Cassini Reveals Surprises with Titan's Lakes
On its final flyby of Saturn's largest moon in 2017, NASA's Cassini spacecraft gathered radar data revealing that the small liquid lakes in Titan's northern hemisphere are surprisingly deep, perched atop hills and filled with…
From ACM TechNews
Big Brother at the Mall
The U.S. Congress is investigating the use of advanced technology to track consumers around brick-and-mortar retailers.
From ACM TechNews
New Recruitment Tool for Construction: The Joystick
The U.S. construction industry aims to restore its workforce by attracting younger replacements who grew up playing PC games.
From ACM TechNews
Employee Privacy in the U.S. at Stake as Corporate Surveillance Technology Monitors Workers' Every Move
The advent of technologies that let businesses track, overhear, and monitor employees on company time is raising issues about corporate surveillance.
From ACM TechNews
Algorithms to Enhance Forest Inventories
A researcher at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland has developed algorithms capable of determining inventory parameters of trees over large forests.
From ACM TechNews
Spy on Your Smart Home With This Open Source Research Tool
Princeton University researchers have built an open source Web app that allows homeowners to monitor their smart home devices.
From ACM TechNews
A Robot Has Figured Out How to Use Tools
A new robotic system can figure out at least the first principles of tool use, through a combination of experimentation and observation.
From ACM News
The Images That Could Help Rebuild Notre-Dame Cathedral
Before the tragedy seen all around the world, flames leaping from the top of Notre-Dame Cathedral, there was a smaller one, thousands of miles away in upstate New York.
From ACM News
A New Recruitment Tool for Construction: The Joystick
Plastic excavators, bulldozers and cranes fueled by imagination have long captivated toddlers. Now, the construction industry is trying to attract teenagers with realistic computer simulators of those same heavy machines, hoping…
From ACM News
Curiosity Tastes First Sample in 'Clay-Bearing Unit'
Scientists working with NASA's Curiosity Mars rover have been excited to explore a region called "the clay-bearing unit" since before the spacecraft launched.