December 2016 - Vol. 59 No. 12

Features

Opinion Departments Dec 1 2016

The ACM Code of Ethics: A Call to Action

The ACM Committee on Professional Ethics is updating the ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. Here I reflect on how those changes motivate a call to action for the profession.

Marty J. Wolf

Computing Profession

Opinion Departments Dec 1 2016

Making a Positive Impact: Updating the ACM Code of Ethics

The ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct describes what brings us together as a profession. As members of the ACM we have all consented to the Code; that consent underlies the conscience of our profession and is the foundation for our shared expectations of each other.

Bo Brinkman, Don Gotterbarn, Keith Miller, and Marty J. Wolf

Computing Profession

Opinion Dec 1 2016

When Email Isn’t Private

Is email ever private? It seems clear that we need standards and agreements to protect email while in transit between mail transfer agents and between users and transfer agents.

Vinton G. Cerf

Computing Applications

Opinion Letters to the editor Dec 1 2016

Reclaim the Lost Promise of the Semantic Web

I was eager to learn about the latest developments in the Semantic Web as explored in "A New Look at the Semantic Web" (Sept. 2016), but by the end I had the impression the entire vision of a Semantic Web was somehow at risk.

CACM Staff

Computing Applications

BLOG@CACM Dec 1 2016

ICER 2016, and Star Trek at 50

Mark Guzdial reports on promising papers, and Daniel Reed recalls a television show that continues to inspire innovation.

Mark Guzdial and Daniel Reed

Education

News Dec 1 2016

Cracking the Code on Biology

Genetic engineering promises to revolutionize everything from agriculture and biofuels to medicine and food safety.

Samuel Greengard

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Cracking the Code on Biology, illustrative photo

News Dec 1 2016

Containers Push Toward the Mayfly Server

The container revolution represents a large-scale shift in thinking about multitasking systems.

Chris Edwards

Architecture and Hardware

News Dec 1 2016

Can We Trust Autonomous Weapons?

Nations consider using defense systems that can make their own lethal decisions.

Keith Kirkpatrick

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Can We Trust Autonomous Weapons? illustration

Opinion The profession of IT Dec 1 2016

Learning to Learn

Do you get stuck when it is time to learn something new? Read this.

Peter J. Denning and Gloria Flores

Computing Applications

Opinion Historical reflections Dec 1 2016

Nailing Smoke

Curation at the bleeding edge of technology.

David P. Anderson

Computing Profession

Opinion Broadening participation Dec 1 2016

Mentoring Female Assistant Professors Enhances Their Success

A randomized controlled trial validates many of the practices used to retain women in academia.

Yan Chen

Education

Mentoring Female Assistant Professors Enhances Their Success, illustrative photo

Opinion Viewpoint Dec 1 2016

Assessing Abstraction Skills

What makes a good question?

Orit Hazzan and Jeff Kramer

Computing Profession

Assessing Abstraction Skills, illustration

Opinion Viewpoint Dec 1 2016

(Mis)Managing Parallel Computing Research Through EU Project Funding

Considering the possible negative long-term effects of EU projects on European scientific culture.

Jesper Larsson Träff

Computing Profession

(Mis)Managing Parallel Computing Research through EU Project Funding, illustrative photo

Practice Dec 1 2016

Functional at Scale

Applying functional programming principles to distributed computing projects.

Marius Eriksen

Computing Applications

Practice Dec 1 2016

React: Facebook's Functional Turn on Writing Javascript

A discussion with Pete Hunt, Paul O'Shannessy, Dave Smith, and Terry Coatta

CACM Staff

Computing Applications

React: Facebook's Functional Turn on Writing Javascript, illustration

Practice Dec 1 2016

Industrial-Scale Agile: From Craft to Engineering

Essence is instrumental in moving software development toward a true engineering discipline.

Ivar Jacobson, Ian Spence, and Ed Seidewitz

Computing Applications

Industrial-Scale Agile–From Craft to Engineering, illustration

Research and Advances Contributed articles Dec 1 2016

Interactive Visualization of 3D Scanned Mummies at Public Venues

A full-body virtual autopsy of an ancient Egyptian mummy showed visitors he was likely murdered.

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Contributed articles Dec 1 2016

Creating Connection with Autonomous Facial Animation

Biologically based computational modeling promises virtual characters capable of face-to-face human interaction.

Mark Sagar, Mike Seymour, and Annette Henderson

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Review articles Dec 1 2016

Anticipating Policy and Social Implications of Named Data Networking

Considering the social impact of a proposed future Internet architecture.

Katie Shilton, Jeffrey A. Burke, KC Claffy, and Lixia Zhang

Computing Profession

Anticipating Policy and Social Implications of Named Data Networking, illustration

Research and Advances Review articles Dec 1 2016

Mathematical Foundations For Social Computing

Social computing benefits from mathematical foundations, but research has barely scratched the surface.

Systems and Networking

Mathematical Foundations for Social Computing, illustration

Research and Advances Research highlights Dec 1 2016

Technical Perspective: The Chemistry of Software-Defined Batteries

A time-tested principle in computer systems design is to use an interface to separate an abstraction from its implementation. "Software-Defined Batteries" represents a convergence of these two evolutionary threads.

Srinivasan Keshav

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Research highlights Dec 1 2016

Software-Defined Batteries

In this paper, we present a new hardware-software system, called Software Defined Battery, which allows system designers to integrate batteries of different chemistries.

Computing Applications

Software-Defined Batteries, illustration

Research and Advances Research highlights Dec 1 2016

Technical Perspective: 3D Image Editing Made Easy

The authors of "Extracting 3D Objects from Photographs Using 3-Sweep" present an important step toward achieving 3D editing.

Takeo Igarashi

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Research and Advances Research highlights Dec 1 2016

Extracting 3D Objects from Photographs Using 3-Sweep

We introduce an interactive technique to extract and manipulate simple 3D shapes in a single photograph.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Extracting 3D Objects from Photographs Using 3-Sweep, illustration

Opinion Last byte Dec 1 2016

A View to the Future

Takeo Kanede, recipient of the 2016 Kyoto prize for advanced technology for pioneering contributions to computer vision and robotics, sees respect as an important part of quality of life technology initiatives.

Leah Hoffmann

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