Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
March 2010
From ACM News
Berners-Lee to Share Reins at World Wide Web Consortium
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), has a new co-captain. It's Jeffrey Jaffe, a technology industry veteran who served most recently as chief technology officer…
From ACM Careers
Enrollment Down in Canada's ICT Programs
Across Canada, enrollment in information and communication technology (ICT) degree programs is down. A 2008 study prepared for the Information and Communications Technology Council, found Canadian undergraduate university enrollments…
From ACM News
China's Fastest Supercomputer to Have China-Made Chips
China's fastest super computer "Tianhe-1," is to be equipped this year with China-made central processing unit (CPU) chips, replacing the only part of the computer that is currently imported.
From ACM News
Security Pros Question Deployment of Smart Meters
The country’s swift deployment of smart-grid technology has security professionals concerned that utilities and smart-meter vendors are repeating the mistakes made in the rollout of the public internet, when security became a…
From ACM News
For Smaller Chips, Borrow 18th-Century Tricks
A new take on a centuries-old printing technique could shrink silicon chips and lead to advances in ultra-high-density computer storage.
Computer chips are made by a process called photolithography, in which intricate patterns…From ACM News
Magnetic Solder to Wire 3-D Chips
A new type of solder can be melted and shaped in three dimensions under the force of a weak magnetic field.
Using a magnet to pull the solder up through narrow holes makes it possible to create electrical connections between…From ACM TechNews
Body Acoustics Can Turn Your Arm Into a Touchscreen
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft have developed Skinput, a skin-based interface that turns the human body into a touchscreen.
From ACM TechNews
Recommendation Algorithm Wants to Show You Something New
An international group of researchers have developed a new algorithm for recommender systems designed to address the challenge of diversity when making recommendations to users.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Engage Communities to Support Women in It Careers
Virginia Tech's Appalachian Information Technology Extension Service is a research-based extension program designed to provide support for young women seeking careers in information technology (IT) in the Appalachian region.
From ACM TechNews
Project Peppher Announced
The European PErformance Portability and Programmability of Heterogeneous many-core aRchitectures (PEPPHER) project is developing a methodology and architecture for applications that can be ported across different types of both…
From ACM TechNews
Egi.eu to Coordinate European Scientific Computing Grids
A new organization named the European Grid Initiative (EGI.eu) will coordinate a European-wide grid computing infrastructure that will enable scientists to share computers to carry out collaborative research projects.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Develop 3D Graphics Capability For Firefox
Researchers have incorporated faster software for generating three-dimensional (3D) images into Firefox and plan to release the modified version of the browser within the next two weeks.
From ACM TechNews
Anita Borg Institute Announces Women of Vision Award Winners
The Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology has named Kathleen R. McKeown, Kristina M. Johnson, and Lila Ibrahim the winners of the 2010 Women of Vision Awards.
From ICT Results
Cloud to Tackle Trillion-Euro Money Laundering Problem
Money laundering is estimated at €1 trillion ($1.36 trillion) worldwide—a huge problem that protects criminal activity. Now European researchers are using cloud computing services to boost anti-money laundering efforts by tracking…
From ACM News
Faster Optical Switching Through Chemistry
New molecules produced at Georgia Tech could enable engineers to build all-optical data routers, ultimately leading to transmission speeds as high as two terabits--or 2,000 gigabits--per second. Today's fastest commercial routers…
From ACM News
UCLA Will Resume Streaming Video After Legal Dispute
The University of California at Los Angeles has restored its streaming video service about two months after temporarily suspending the service amid complaints from an educational-media trade group.
From ACM News
White House Cyber Czar: 'there Is No Cyberwar'
Howard Schmidt, the new cybersecurity czar for the Obama Administration, has a short answer for the drumbeat of rhetoric claiming the United States is caught up in a cyberwar that it is losing. "There is no cyberwar," Schmidtsays…
From ACM News
New Frontiers: The Nanoscience/neuroscience Intersection
Is it possible to build supercomputers that can replicate the human brain, or to develop nanotechnology that can lead to an implantable chip for interfacing with neurons and other types of cellular networks?
From ACM News
Researchers to Develop Tiny Metamaterial Antennas
Northeastern University engineering professor Hossein Mosallaei is leading an effort to use metamaterials to make smaller antennas that allow quicker and more efficient wireless communications.
From ACM News
China in Consultations With Google to Resolve Dispute
China is in consultations with technology giant Google to resolve its dispute with the company, which has threatened to abandon the Chinese market over hacking and censorship concerns, said a Chinese official on Friday (March…
From ACM News
Internet's Future on Display at Singularity U.
The Internet of the future is an intelligent network capable of proactively acting on our needs, following us wherever we go, helping provide us with focused health care, and possibly ushering in a new energy paradigm.
ThisGlobal…From ACM TechNews
Nasa Grooming Satellite Repair-Bots
The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is developing satellite repair-bots to demonstrate the feasibility of refueling, repairing, and servicing spacecraft in orbit.
From ACM TechNews
One Sensor to Do the Work of Many
U.S. Pentagon scientists have developed the Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System (ARGUS-IS), a sensor system that can spot and track more than 65 targets simultaneously from altitudes higher than…
From ACM TechNews
Putting the Web in a Spreadsheet
IBM researchers have developed BigSheets, a data analysis tool based on Hadoop designed to help users analyze large Web data sets. BigSheets uses Hadoop to comb through Web pages, looking for key terms and other data.
From ACM News
Call Forwarding: New Procedure Could Speed Cell Phone Testing
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has shown how the wireless industry could lop hours off the process of testing the capabilities of new cellular phones.
From ACM News
Napolitano Issues Dhs National Cybersecurity Challenge to Security Community
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano delivered a keynote address which focused on cybersecurity at the RSA Conference in San Francisco on Wednesday (March 3). She closed her remarks by issuing a challenge…
From ACM News
Skapp Project Issues Recommendations on Improving Government Science
A new report from the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy's Scientists in Government project concludes that policies regarding the roles and responsibilities of federal scientists need to be consistent across federal…
From ACM News
Nsf Career Award Recognizes Wsu Vancouver Professor
WenZhan Song, assistant professor in the School of Engineering and Computer Science at WSU Vancouver, has received a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER award to build networks of sensors that work reliably in harsh…
From ACM News
Researchers Find Weakness in Common Digital Security System
The most common digital security technique used to protect both media copyright and Internet communications has a major weakness, University of Michigan computer scientists have discovered.
From ACM News
Touch Screens that Touch Back
Forget putting your phone on vibrate. A novel "high-definition" touch-feedback display can give a touch screen the feel of a textured surface. The technology was developed for mobile devices by the San Jose CA-based company Immersion…