Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
September 2010
From ACM TechNews
Fcc Likely to Open Airwaves to Wireless
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is expected to approve the use of "white spaces"—unlicensed, TV-band airwaves that could lead to stronger, faster wireless broadband networks, which would serve as the framework for…
From ACM News
Video Games Lead to Faster Decisions That Are No Less Accurate
Cognitive scientists have discovered that playing action video games trains people to make the right decisions faster. Gamers' heightened sensitivity improves a variety of general skills that can help with activities like multitasking…
From ACM News
Can You Find Me Now?
By demonstrating fundamental limits on their accuracy, MIT researchers show how to improve wireless location-detection systems.
From ICT Results
Access to Data of the Past
Tools to understand data from out-of-date systems will also promote the rapid integration of data from newly developed systems.
From ACM News
Wheelchair Makes the Most of Brain Control
Artificial intelligence improves a wheelchair system that could give paralyzed people greater mobility.
From ACM News
Researchers in Asian Countries Raise Their Scientific Profiles Worldwide
While researchers at universities and institutes in many Western countries fret about budget pressures, scientists in many Asian nations are translating huge investments in research and development into impressive gains in…
From ACM News
Fujitsu to Release Wireless Charging Tech in 2012
Fujitsu said Monday (September 13) that it has overcome design hurdles for a mechanism for wireless charging of electronic devices and that the company plans to use it in products to be sold in 2012.
From ACM News
Crowdsourcing Peer Review
It is the greatest question in computer science. A negative answer would likely give a fundamentally deeper understanding of the nature of computation. And a positive answer would transform our world.
From ACM TechNews
Byu Research Predicts Path of Lost Hikers
Computer models developed at Brigham Young University could help search and rescue teams in their effort to find lost hikers. The predictive models start at the point where a person was last seen and incorporates the amount…
From ACM TechNews
Engaging Girls in STEM
Girls in the United States are no more interested in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers than they were 20 years ago. Aa recent study also found that in the workforce, men outnumbered women 73 percent to…
From ACM TechNews
Preventing Smart-Phone Armageddon
Attacks against smartphones are likely to proliferate because of their growing ubiquity and the sensitive information they carry. However, researchers believe they have devised an effective way to vet smartphones for viruses…
From ACM TechNews
Obama Calls For Permanent R&d Tax Credit
U.S. President Barack Obama has urged Congress to make permanent an R&D tax credit for U.S. companies. The plan would enlarge the tax credit from about $7 billion per year to about $10 billion per year over the next 10 years…
From ACM TechNews
New Method Helps Computer Vision Systems Decipher Outdoor Scenes
Carnegie Mellon University researchers have developed a system that enables computers to extract more information from an image by analyzing the physical constraints of the scene.
From ACM TechNews
Quantum Cryptography Breached With Lasers
Three universities in Europe collaborated to develop a laser-based attack against quantum cryptography systems that allows them to eavesdrop on communications without revealing their presence.
From ACM TechNews
'Slow Light' on a Chip Holds Promise for Optical Communications
Scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) and Brigham Young University have developed an optical device that has the slowest-ever light propagation on a chip, reducing the speed of light by a factor of 1,200…
From ACM News
Mapping New Paths For a Stressed-Out Internet
Researchers in the United States and Europe have created the first geometric "atlas" of the Internet as part of a project to prevent the world's most ubiquitous form of communication from collapsing within the next decade or…
From ACM News
What Info Can ncle Sam Dig p About You?
Got any secrets you're hiding from Uncle Sam? The answer had better be no, because in the digital age, your life is more of an open book than ever before.
From ACM News
Intel and Arm to Battle For the Hearts of Smartphones
Intel is aiming for a slice of the smartphone market with a new chip with built-in graphics.
From ACM News
Apple Blinks in Apps Fight
In an uncharacteristic about-face, Apple Inc. loosened its control over software development for its iPhones and iPads as the company feels heat from a U.S. antitrust investigation and rising competition from mobile devices…
From ACM News
Apple Answers Questions About App Rejections, Raises Others
Apple on Thursday published a set of rules about the types of content that aren't allowed in the iOS App Store, answering questions that have been bugging software developers and customers for years while introducing some…
From ACM TechNews
Cracking Flight's Mysteries
Harvard University engineers are developing minuscule aerial robots that could one day be used to investigate areas that are too hazardous for humans. The robot's PARITy differential is about a millionth the mass of an automobile…
From ACM News
U.s. and China Team Up to Fund Clean Energy Research
Two consortia—one led one led by the West Virginia University that includes as a partner Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and one led by the University of Michigan—will receive a total of $25 million during the next…
From ACM TechNews
Botnet Takedown May Yield Valuable Data
Ruhr-University researchers have dismantled part of Pushdo, one of the top five networks of hacked computers responsible for most of the world's spam, which could shed more light on the nature of botnets.
From ACM TechNews
CLA Chemists, Engineers Fabricate High-Speed Graphene Transistors
UCLA researchers say they have fabricated the fastest graphene transistors ever using a nanowire as the self-aligned gate. Their fabrication technique enabled the team to demonstrate graphene-based transistors with a cutoff…
From ACM News
Researchers Give Robots the Capability For Deceptive Behavior
Researchers have published what is believed to be the first detailed examination of robot deception. They developed algorithms that allow a robot to determine whether it should deceive and designed techniques that help the robot…
From ACM News
'onshoring' Gives .s. Companies an Alternative to Offshore Outsourcing
Companies seeking an alternative to offshore outsourcing are trying "onshoring," an emerging trend of outsourcing IT functions to companies in the rural United States.
From ACM News
Student-Built Satellite Scheduled for Launch
A 6.5-pound satellite scheduled for launch on November 19 is to become the first stand-alone spacecraft built by University of Michigan students to go into orbit and perform a science mission.
From ACM News
Cloud Computing Method Greatly Increases Gene Analysis
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have developed new software that uses cloud computing to greatly improve the speed at which scientists can analyze RNA sequencing data.
From ACM News
Technology Becomes Most Popular Homework Excuse
Workshy schoolchildren no longer rely on traditional excuses such as "the dog ate my homework," preferring more modern variations including "my computer crashed," according to a U.K. survey.
From ACM TechNews
Scientists View Cybersecurity as an Intimidating Conundrum
The U.S. President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology recently called on cybersecurity experts to discuss specific areas in the networking and information technology sector that warrant federal government research…