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.
BLOG@CACM
Advertisement
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.
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.
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 considers how software companies could effectively incorporate first-rate design into their products.
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.
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.
How to Make a Geek Goddess Spit with Rage
A rather grumpy review of the book How to Be a Geek Goddess.
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.
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.
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?
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?
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.
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.
Busy as he may be, Santa is still finding time to reply to his email on computer science matters.
Computer Science Education Week Extends Its Reach
Covering the highlights from CSEdWeek 2010 and how the computing community can stay involved.
We’re Too Late For ‘First’ in CS1
By the time students get to undergraduate CS1, they already have lots of ideas about computation. Objects, hardware, breadth, functions first--none of that really matters. There is no more "first" in CS1.
2010 Seymour Cray and Sidney Fernbach Awards
This year, I again had the honor and privilege to chair the selection committee for the IEEE Seymour Cray and Sidney Fernbach awards, both of which were presented at SC10 in New Orleans. These eponymously named awards recognize truly outstanding contributions to high-performance computing, in honor of two early leaders of our field.
Security Advice; Malvertisements; and CS Education in Qatar
Greg Linden discusses security advice and the cost of user effort, Jason Hong considers the increase in malvertisements, and Mark Guzdial writes about gender and CS education in Qatar.
SC10: Green500 and Booth ‘Awards’
SC10 has included several lists that rank supercomputers according to different criteria. The November 2010 Green500, focusing on energy efficiency, is out and has some interesting surprises.
Game Design Through Mentoring and Collaboration
About the successful game design program for students at McKinley Tech and George Mason University which encourages young people to study STEM.
SC10: Dally Keynote, Heterogeneous Computing Systems
This post provides some impressions from Wednesday, November 17, at SC10, including Bill Dally's keynote address and panel discussions on heterogeneous computing.
Welcome to SC10: Opening Keynote, Top500 List
SC10—the premier conference for supercomputing—has begun. This post touches on a few highlights from the first day of the full technical program, including the keynote by Clayton Christensen, the official release of the Top500 list, and some observations on the exhibit floor.
Shape the Future of Computing
ACM encourages its members to take a direct hand in shaping the future of the association. There are more ways than ever to get involved.
Get InvolvedCommunications of the ACM (CACM) is now a fully Open Access publication.
By opening CACM to the world, we hope to increase engagement among the broader computer science community and encourage non-members to discover the rich resources ACM has to offer.
Learn More