Welcome to the November 15, 2019 edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for IT professionals three times a week.
ACM TechNews mobile apps are available for Android phones and tablets (click here) and for iPhones (click here) and iPads (click here).
To view "Headlines At A Glance," hit the link labeled "Click here to view this online" found at the top of the page in the html version.
The online version now has a button at the top labeled "Show Headlines."
|
|
|
AI System Evolves to Evade Internet Censorship
University of Maryland College of Computer, Mathematical, & Natural Sciences
November 13, 2019
University of Maryland scientists led development of an artificial intelligence system based on genetic evolution that learned to automatically evade online censorship by repressive governments. The Geneva (genetic evasion) system was tested in China, India, and Kazakhstan, and learned to exploit gaps in censors' logic and flaws that humans could not spot. When operating on a computer that is sending out Web requests via a censor, Geneva tweaks the data's fragmentation and transmission so the censor fails to identify banned content, or cannot block the connection. Geneva assembles sets of instructions from small code fragments, which follow refined evasion strategies for breaking up, configuring, or sending data packets. Said Maryland’s Dave Levin, “With Geneva, we are, for the first time, at a major advantage in the censorship arms race.”
|
Software Helps Planners Design Walkable Cities
Cornell Chronicle (NY)
Melanie Lefkowitz
November 13, 2019
Free software developed by Cornell University researchers can help urban planners and architects design walkability into cities via an easy-to-use interface. The Urbano software lets users model their surroundings and receive feedback early in the design process, so design decisions are informed by facts and data. Urbano evaluates walkability using the Streetscore metric to calculate how streets are employed for certain routes; Walkscore, a tailored metric that rates the proximity of popular amenities to homes and workplaces; and AmenityScore, which rates the usefulness of local services based on local demographics. Said Cornell’s Timur Dogan, “This is really helpful information for designers doing site analysis, because then they can see if there are certain services or amenities missing in neighborhoods, or others that are underutilized or overutilized.”
|
Can a UNICORN Outrun Earthquakes?
Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility
Rachel Harken
November 13, 2019
Researchers at the Earthquake Research Institute (ERI) of Japan’s University of Tokyo are using the IBM AC922 Summit supercomputer at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) to simulate the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a tectonic plate boundary that runs from Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada to northern California. The researchers transformed the Unstructured fiNite element ImpliCit sOlver with stRuctured grid coarseNing (UNICORN) code into an artificial intelligence–like algorithm, and ran it at 416 petaflops, resulting in a 75-fold speedup from a previous state-of-the-art solver. The researchers said the new solver can aid scientists in long-term earthquake forecasting.
|
Video Editing Tool for User-Friendly, Predictive Text-to-Video Production
SIGGRAPH Asia 2019
November 14, 2019
Computer scientists at Tsinghua and Beihang Universities in China, Harvard University, and Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya in Israel have created a predictive video-editing tool that produces videos from themed text. The user-friendly Write-A-Video tool automatically selects scenes or shots from a library to illustrate written narratives, with changes made to the video by editing the accompanying text. The tool looks for semantically matching candidate shots from the video library, then applies optimization to build the montage by automatically reordering shots. Beihang's Miao Wang said, "Write-A-Video also allows users to explore visual styles for each scene using cinematographic idioms generating, for example, faster or slower-paced movies, less or more content movements, etc."
|
IBM Hopes to Change Weather Forecasting Around the Globe Using Big Data, Supercomputer
CNBC
Steve Liesman
November 14, 2019
IBM has launched a global weather model that it says offers more accurate forecasts for the entire world and can provide details for regions as small as two miles wide. The Global High-Resolution Atmospheric Forecasting (GRAF) model runs only on IBM's new DYEUS supercomputer, which will publish 12 trillion pieces of daily weather data and process hourly forecasts; many global weather models only update every six to 12 hours. Individuals can access data via the Weather Channel app on smartphones, and in other sources employing IBM data. DYEUS utilizes IBM's Power 9 processing chips, and graphics processing units used in video gaming, to expedite visual output processing. GRAF, which IBM said can collect data from aircraft sensors and smartphones, will deliver forecasts of up to 15 hours for 26 million locations worldwide.
|
Report Exposes Flaw in iVote System Used in NSW Election
University of Melbourne
November 14, 2019
A study by a researcher at Australia's University of Melbourne revealed how a flaw in an online/phone voting system used in the March 2019 New South Wales, Australia, election could have been exploited to perpetrate undetectable voter fraud. Melbourne’s Vanessa Teague said the iVote system's vote-verification process contains an error that could allow valid votes to be rendered invalid and not counted, while producing a "proof" that the system had correctly managed those votes. Said Teague, "As it stands, iVote is not a verifiable election system and does not provide meaningful evidence that its output accurately represents the will of voters.”
|
NIST-Led Team Develops Tiny Low-Energy Device to Rapidly Reroute Light in Computer Chips
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Ben P. Stein
November 14, 2019
International researchers led by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology have developed an optical switch that routes light between computer chips faster than any similar device. The switch can redirect signals in just 20 billionths of a second, amounting to a step toward computers that use light instead of electricity to process data. The device integrates nanoscale gold and silicon optical, electrical, and mechanical elements, to channel light into and out of a miniature racetrack to modify its speed and trajectory. This might help realize quantum computing, as the switch requires little energy, which could ensure the computer can function without disrupting paired subatomic particles necessary for processing data.
|
AI to Run Chemical Factories of the Future
Illinois News Bureau
Lois Yoksoulian
November 13, 2019
University of Illinois (U of I) researchers designed an artificial intelligence-driven automated biomanufacturing platform, to produce the pigment lycopene. The researchers said such a tool must choose from thousands of experimental iterations to achieve true chemical factory automation. BioAutomata completed two rounds of fully automated assembly/optimization of the lycopene production pathway, covering design and construction of the pathways, transfer of DNA-encoding pathways into host cells, cell growth, and extraction and quantification of lycopene production. Said U of I’s Huimin Zhao, “A hundred years ago, people built cars by hand. Now, that process is much more economical and efficient thanks to automation, and we imagine the same for biomanufacturing of chemicals and materials.”
|
Fordham Business Students Have New Tool to Prepare Them for Boardrooms: VR
The Washington Post
Peter Holley
November 12, 2019
Fordham University students are using virtual reality (VR) technology to build professional business skills in simulated environments. One simulation has participants learning to network among groups of strangers in a room, while others have them leading negotiations at business meetings, or making presentations before colleagues. The rest of the class watches and critiques their anonymous virtual avatars on a projector, in real time. The Fordham professor co-leading the class, Lyron Bentovim, also is CEO of the Glimpse Group, an augmented reality/VR company providing the technology for the class. Bentovim said over time, he expects VR will grow to be a feature in classrooms at every level of education.
*May Require Paid Registration
|
As 5G Rolls Out, Troubling Security Flaws Emerge
Wired
Lily Hay Newman
November 12, 2019
Purdue University and University of Iowa researchers used a custom tool called 5GReasoner to detect 11 design issues in 5G wireless protocols that could compromise security, as well as flaws carried over from 3G and 4G. The researchers found susceptibility to downgrade attacks can cause a 5G device to revert to 4G or limited service mode, forcing transmission of an unencrypted International Mobile Subscriber Identity number. Other flaws could let attackers track devices by overriding Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity resets. 5GReasoner also uncovered flaws in the 5G standard that influence initial device registration, deregistration, and paging, and exploit how a carrier deploys the standard to stage replay attacks and run up a victim's mobile bill by repeatedly sending the same message or command. The researchers submitted these flaws to standards organization GSMA, which said the vulnerabilities “have been judged as nil or low-impact in practice,” adding that it is working on patches.
|
Google's 'Project Nightingale' Gathers Personal Health Data on Millions of Americans
The Wall Street Journal
Rob Copeland
November 11, 2019
Google and the Ascension healthcare system have partnered on an initiative to collect the personal medical data of tens of millions of Americans. Project Nightingale gathers information including laboratory results, doctor diagnoses, and hospitalization records, comprising complete health histories, without informing patients or doctors. The search engine giant is using the data in part to design new software that focuses on individuals to suggest treatment changes. Google says its ultimate goal is to develop an omnibus search tool to aggregate and host patient data; Ascension hopes to better patient care, and to mine the data to identify additional tests for patients or other ways of boosting revenue. While the companies said the initiative complies with federal health laws and includes protections for patient data, a knowledgeable source said at least 150 Google employees already have access to much of the data on tens of millions of patients, as do staffers at Google parent Alphabet.
*May Require Paid Registration
|
Sensor to Save Children, Pets Left in Vehicles
University of Waterloo News
November 11, 2019
Researchers at the University of Waterloo in Canada have developed a device that combines radar technology with artificial intelligence to detect unattended children or animals left in vehicles when the driver leaves with 100% accuracy. The device, which attaches to a vehicle's rear-view mirror or ceiling, sends out radar signals that are reflected back by people, animals, and objects, detecting when a child or pet has been left behind in a vehicle. In such cases, the system would prevent vehicle doors from locking and sound an alarm to alert the driver, passengers, and others in the area. Said Waterloo researcher George Shaker, "Unlike cameras, this device preserves privacy and it doesn't have any blind spots because radar can penetrate seats, for instance, to determine if there is an infant in a rear-facing car seat."
|
|
