acm-header
Sign In

Communications of the ACM

News


Latest News News Archive Refine your search:
dateMore Than a Year Ago
subjectTheory
authorMIT News
bg-corner

An edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.


Writing Programs Using Ordinary Language
From ACM News

Writing Programs Using Ordinary Language

In a pair of recent papers, researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have demonstrated that, for a few specific tasks, it's...

New System ­ses Low-Power Wi-Fi Signal to Track Moving Humans—even Behind Walls
From ACM News

New System ­ses Low-Power Wi-Fi Signal to Track Moving Humans—even Behind Walls

The comic-book hero Superman uses his X-ray vision to spot bad guys lurking behind walls and other objects.

Valuing Versatility
From ACM News

Valuing Versatility

It's often said that we live in an age of increased specialization: physicians who treat just one ailment, scholars who study just one period, network administrators...

Can Control Theory Make Software Better?
From ACM TechNews

Can Control Theory Make Software Better?

Researchers recently demonstrated the application of control theory principles to formal verification, in a method that could benefit approximate computation. 

How to Predict the Progress of Technology
From ACM TechNews

How to Predict the Progress of Technology

Moore’s Law and Wright’s Law offer the best predictions of the pace of technological progress, researchers say. 

Storing Data in Individual Molecules
From ACM News

Storing Data in Individual Molecules

Moore's law—the well-known doubling of computer chips' computational power every 18 months or so—has been paced by a similarly steady increase in the storage capacity...

Research Update: Multiple Steps Toward the 'quantum Singularity'
From ACM TechNews

Research Update: Multiple Steps Toward the 'quantum Singularity'

Four groups of researchers recently reported the completion of an experiment that involves generating individual photons and synchronizing their passage through...

Proving Quantum Computers Feasible
From ACM News

Proving Quantum Computers Feasible

Quantum computers are devices—still largely theoretical—that could perform certain types of computations much faster than classical computers; one way they might...

'Invisibility' Could Be a Key to Better Electronics
From ACM TechNews

'Invisibility' Could Be a Key to Better Electronics

MIT researchers have applied the concept of harnessing cloaking mechanisms developed to conceal objects from view to the movement of electrons, which could lead...

Mit's Csail Launches New Center to Tackle the Future of Wireless and Mobile Technologies
From ACM TechNews

Mit's Csail Launches New Center to Tackle the Future of Wireless and Mobile Technologies

MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory recently launched Wireless@MIT, an interdisciplinary center focused on developing next-generation...

MIT Team Builds Most Complex Synthetic Biology Circuit Yet
From ACM TechNews

MIT Team Builds Most Complex Synthetic Biology Circuit Yet

MIT researchers have developed circuit components that do not interfere with one another, enabling them to produce complex synthetic circuits.  

Research ­pdate: Chips With Self-Assembling Rectangles
From ACM TechNews

Research ­pdate: Chips With Self-Assembling Rectangles

MIT researchers have developed an approach to creating the array of wires on microchips that uses a system of self-assembling polymers. The process produces arrays...

Finding Good Music in Noisy Online Markets
From ACM TechNews

Finding Good Music in Noisy Online Markets

Columbia University researchers began an online social-media marketing experiment in 2004, creating nine versions of a music download site that presented the same...

New Mathematical Framework Formalizes Oddball Programming Techniques
From ACM TechNews

New Mathematical Framework Formalizes Oddball Programming Techniques

MIT researchers have developed a mathematical framework that enables developers to reason rigorously about sloppy computation, providing mathematical guarantees...

The Robot Revolution Is Just Beginning
From ACM News

The Robot Revolution Is Just Beginning

When industrial robots were first introduced in the early 1960s initially on automobile assembly lines—computers were still in their infancy, so the robots were...

Chips as Mini Internets
From ACM TechNews

Chips as Mini Internets

MIT researchers have established theoretical limits on the efficiency of packet-switched on-chip communication networks, and have presented measurements from a...

Shifting Sands
From ACM News

Shifting Sands

Sand in an hourglass might seem simple and straightforward, but such granular materials are actually tricky to model.

Self-Sculpting Sand
From ACM News

Self-Sculpting Sand

Imagine that you have a big box of sand in which you bury a tiny model of a footstool.

From ACM News

Guiding Robot Planes with Hand Gestures

Aircraft-carrier crew use a set of standard hand gestures to guide planes on the carrier deck. But as robot planes are increasingly used for routine air missions...

Sometimes the Quickest Path Is Not a Sraight Line
From ACM News

Sometimes the Quickest Path Is Not a Sraight Line

Sometimes the fastest pathway from point A to point B is not a straight line: for example, if you're underwater and contending with strong and shifting currents...
Sign In for Full Access
» Forgot Password? » Create an ACM Web Account