September 2021 - Vol. 64 No. 9

Features

Opinion Departments Sep 1 2021

The Sand-Heap Paradox of Privacy and Influence

In 2018, Arnold Kling wrote a famous blog article, "How the Internet turned bad." It is time for us, as a community, to ask now: "How do we turn the Internet good?"

Moshe Y. Vardi

Architecture and Hardware

Careers Career paths in computing Sep 1 2021

How Music and Programming Led Me to Build Digital Microworlds

The ability to discover and experience world building is a relatively unique privilege afforded to computer programmers.

Andrew Sorensen

Computing Applications

Opinion Letters to the Editor Sep 1 2021

Turing Reaction

The June 2021 Communications of the ACM celebrates Jeffrey Ullman and Alfred Aho as winners of ACM's 2020 Turing Award. For many Iranian members of the computing community, Ullman is the face of discrimination in academia.

CACM Staff

Computing Profession

BLOG@CACM Sep 1 2021

Finding the Art in Systems Conversions, Naming

Doug Meil considers a third distinct type of development, while Mario Antoine Aoun ponders alternate names for ACM.

Doug Meil and Mario Antoine Aoun

Software Engineering and Programming Languages

News Sep 1 2021

A Model Restoration

The architect of the Sagrada Familia appears to have done parametric modeling in his head; software is helping to complete the structure a century later.

Marina Krakovsky

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

News Sep 1 2021

Photonic Processors Light the Way

Highly efficient light-based processors can overcome the bottlenecks of today's electronics.

Samuel Greengard

Architecture and Hardware

electronic-photonic processor chip, illustration

News Sep 1 2021

Non-Fungible Tokens and the Future of Art

A new blockchain-based technology is changing how the art world works, and changing how we think about asset ownership in the process.

Logan Kugler

Computing Applications

blocks with faces and icons, illustration

Opinion Law and technology Sep 1 2021

Protecting the Global Internet from Technology Cold Wars

Considering the perceived dangers of the global information flow.

Anupam Chander

Architecture and Hardware

wall separates dancers in red and blue spaces, illustration

Opinion Security Sep 1 2021

Security Done Right Can Make Smart Cities Wise

Seeking security improvements for smart cities.

Marjory S. Blumenthal

Computing Applications

key shape within a city grid, illustration

Opinion Historical reflections Sep 1 2021

Women’s Lives in Code

Exploring Ellen Ullman's 'Close to the Machine' and AMC's 'Halt and Catch Fire.'

Thomas Haigh

Computing Applications

Opinion The profession of IT Sep 1 2021

Back of the Envelope

Back-of-the-envelope calculations are a powerful professional practice.

Peter J. Denning

Computing Applications

Opinion Viewpoint Sep 1 2021

Testing Educational Digital Games

Diversifying usability studies utilizing rapid application development.

Lamont A. Flowers

Computing Profession

'Level Up! OK!' text in game screen format, illustration

Opinion Viewpoint Sep 1 2021

Whose Smartphone Is It?

Should two private companies have complete control over the world's cellphones?

James R. Larus

Computing Applications

giant cellphones tower over buildings and people, illustration

Opinion Viewpoint Sep 1 2021

AI Ethics: A Call to Faculty

Integrating ethics into artificial intelligence education and development.

Illah Reza Nourbakhsh

Computing Applications

Practice Sep 1 2021

The Complex Path to Quantum Resistance

Is your organization prepared?

Atefeh Mashatan and Douglas Heintzman

Computing Profession

Practice Sep 1 2021

Quantum-Safe Trust for Vehicles: The Race Is Already On

A discussion of concerns on quantum vulnerability for the automobile industry.

Michael Gardiner, Alexander Truskovsky, Atefeh Mashatan, and George V. Neville-Neil

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Contributed articles Sep 1 2021

The Future Is Big Graphs: A Community View on Graph Processing Systems

Ensuring the success of big graph processing for the next decade and beyond.

Computing Applications

checkerboard patterns with red pins, illustration

Research and Advances Contributed articles Sep 1 2021

Managing IT Professional Turnover

Organizational distrust, not compensation, is more likely to send IT pros packing.

Kelly Idell, David Gefen, and Arik Ragowsky

Computing Profession

Research and Advances Contributed articles Sep 1 2021

Formalizing and Guaranteeing Human-Robot Interaction

As robots begin to interact closely with humans, we need to build systems worthy of trust regarding the safety and quality of the interaction.

Architecture and Hardware

two human hands and two robotic hands locked at wrists, illustration

Research and Advances Review articles Sep 1 2021

An Internet of Things Service Roadmap

A blueprint for leveraging the tremendous opportunities the IoT has to offer.

Architecture and Hardware

tangle of roads with signs stating 'Contextualization,' 'Augmentation,' and 'Security'

Research and Advances Research highlights Sep 1 2021

Technical Perspective: The Importance of WINOGRANDE

"WINOGRANDE" explores new methods of dataset development and adversarial filtering, expressly designed to prevent AI systems from making claims of smashing through benchmarks without making real progress.

Leora Morgenstern

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

elephant, a basketball, and an open door

Research and Advances Research highlights Sep 1 2021

WinoGrande: An Adversarial Winograd Schema Challenge at Scale

We introduce WinoGrande, a large-scale dataset of 44k problems, inspired by the original Winograd Schema Challenge, but adjusted to improve both the scale and the hardness of the dataset.

Keisuke Sakaguchi, Ronan Le Bras, Chandra Bhagavatula, and Yejin Choi

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

elephant doesn't fit through open doorway

Research and Advances Research highlights Sep 1 2021

Technical Perspective: Does Your Experiment Smell?

"PlanAlyzer," by Emma Tosch et al., details PlanAlyzer software, the first tool to statically check the validity of online experiments.

Stefano Balietti

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Research highlights Sep 1 2021

PlanAlyzer: Assessing Threats to the Validity of Online Experiments

We present the first approach for checking the internal validity of online experiments statically, that is, from code alone.

Computing Applications

dog paws and human hands at laptop computer keyboard

Opinion Last byte Sep 1 2021

Playing With, and Against, Computers

2019 ACM Computing Prize recipient David Silver on developing the AlphaGo algorithm, his fascination with Go, and on teaching computers to play.

Leah Hoffmann

Computing Applications

2019 ACM Computing Prize recipient David Silver

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