BLOG@CACM – Page 46 – Communications of the ACM

Mar 20 2011

As I have followed the international news regarding the Japanese disaster, I have been struck by the challenges each news organization has faced in explaining technical concepts. We live in a technological society, where understanding of scientific processes and the engineering design balances are essential to informed debate and decision making.

Daniel Reed

Computing Applications

Mar 11 2011

Algorithm Visualizations and Community Building

If you’re interested in using or developing algorithm visualizations (AVs), you should visit AlgoViz.org, a portal dedicated to creating a repository of AVs and building an active online community around them.

Jack Rosenberger

Computing Applications

Mar 10 2011

TeachScheme! Using Mathematics to Teach Programming

Matthias Felleisen and a team of computer scientists have developed the TeachScheme! Project, which provides high school teachers with courseware and other tools to use mathematics to teach programming.

Jack Rosenberger

Computing Applications

Mar 9 2011

Who Needs a Tablet?

Tablets do not solve a mainstream problem, they only serve a niche.

Greg Linden

Computing Applications

Mar 1 2011

Scientists, Engineers, and Computer Science; Industry and Research Groups

Mark Guzdial discusses what scientists and engineers should know about computer science, such as Alan Kay's "Triple Whammy." Greg Linden writes about industry's different approaches to research and how to organize researchers in a company.

Mark Guzdial and Greg Linden

Computing Applications

Feb 28 2011

Software Verification Turns Mainstream

Verification is maturing to the point where it will become integrated into mainstream software development.

Bertrand Meyer

Systems and Networking

Feb 24 2011

At the NSF CE21 Meeting: We Have Such a Long Way to Go

The NSF CE21 Community Meeting highlighted the opportunity that computing has to catch up with the rest of STEM on education issues.

Mark Guzdial

Computing Profession

Feb 24 2011

Let’s Teach Malware When It’s Ready: The Purpose of Undergrad CS

Ledin's call for teaching malware to all undergraduate students conflicts with my understanding of the purpose of an undergraduate CS degree.

Mark Guzdial

Computing Profession

Feb 19 2011

The Wonderful World of Cooking Interfaces

This is an article describing some recent (and bizarre) interfaces to support cooking. The intersection of computer science and culinary art is not as small as you might think.

Judy Robertson

Computing Applications

Feb 18 2011

Intellectual Amplification via Computing

As the recent performance of IBM's Watson system on the game show Jeopardy! illustrated, the combination of large-scale data, rich algorithm suites and powerful computing are opening new vistas. Vannevar Bush's 1940s vision of a Memex, a device capable of storing, indexing and retrieving data from a broad knowledge base, is now within our reach.

Daniel Reed

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Feb 15 2011

Who Needs a Netbook?

In only a couple years, improved smartphones and laptops have closed the niche that netbooks lived in. Rather than mourn the loss of netbooks, let's celebrate their demise.

Greg Linden

Computing Applications

Feb 6 2011

Design, Functionality, and Diffusion of Innovations

What's the relationship between functionality and design? What kinds of factors influence whether people do or don't adopt a technology?

Jason Hong

HCI

Feb 1 2011

Matters of Design

Jason Hong considers how software companies could effectively incorporate first-rate design into their products.

Jason Hong

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Jan 25 2011

What ‘Beginning’ Students Already Know: The Evidence

Detailed data collection at ETH Zurich over eight years shows what entering computer science students already know in computer usage and programming.

Bertrand Meyer

Computing Applications

Jan 24 2011

Peer Instruction For Seeing What Students Know (and Don’t)

Peer Instruction is an important pedagogical approach that is promoted by physics education researchers. I'm trying it for the first time in my CS class, and it's giving me new insight into my students.

Mark Guzdial

Education

Jan 20 2011

How to Make a Geek Goddess Spit with Rage

A rather grumpy review of the book How to Be a Geek Goddess.

Judy Robertson

Computing Profession

Jan 18 2011

Let the Feds Know Your Thoughts on K-12 Computer Science Education

A federal program that invests in information technology research and development asks the community three sets of questions related to making K-12 computer science and essential subject.

Cameron Wilson

Education

Jan 14 2011

Big Data, Big Problems

U.S. government agencies are spending boatloads of money on pushing the envelope of massive compute servers, but appear to be ignoring the fact that many research groups have serious data-management problems.

Michael Stonebraker

Data and Information

Jan 13 2011

Again: The One Sure Way to Advance Software Engineering

There is one proven way to improve the state of software, following the the airline industry's spectacular improvements of safety. The IT industry ignores it. Why?

Bertrand Meyer

Computing Applications

Jan 8 2011

The Best Job in the World

Where does software engineer come in a ranked list of jobs?

Judy Robertson

Computing Profession

Jan 6 2011

Teaching Kids to Feel the Math With Computers

Why are students still calculating when they could be understanding? Now that computers are everywhere, how should math education change?

Greg Linden

Computing Profession

Jan 5 2011

Works in Progress: MIA

It is time we extracted a sample of cultural DNA from computing's history and engineered a new generation of contemplative, informal workshops. After gestation, ideas conceived at those workshops might even find their way into technical reports. Imagine that.

Daniel Reed

Computing Applications

Jan 1 2011

Smart Career Advice; Laptops as a Classroom Distraction

Jack Rosenberger shares Patty Azzarello's life lessons about advancing in the workplace. Judy Robertson discusses students' in-class usage of laptops.

Jack Rosenberger and Judy Robertson

Computing Applications

Dec 21 2010

Santa’s Outbox

Busy as he may be, Santa is still finding time to reply to his email on computer science matters.

Judy Robertson

Computing Profession

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