Welcome to the September 7, 2022, edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for IT professionals three times a week.
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Alabama Program Quintuples K-12 CS Enrollment
Government Technology
Kalyn Dunkins
September 6, 2022
Computer science (CS) enrollment in Alabama schools has risen dramatically since the Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) launched the Computer Science for Alabama program (CS4Alabama) three years ago. The University of Alabama at Birmingham's CS department said K-12 CS enrollment has increased nearly fivefold in the last two years. In 2019, Alabama became the sixth state to meet all of Code.org's recommendations to improve CS education and training, and also became certified to train more CS teachers, boosted professional development funding, and began requiring all schools to offer CS. "Legislation and policies in place really gave Alabama's K-12 Computer Science efforts the push to make it all work," said ALSDE's Dawn Morrison.
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Technique Boosts Online Medical Search Results
Cornell University Chronicle
Tom Fleischman
September 6, 2022
A multi-institutional team led by Cornell University scientists employed natural language processing and network analysis to search online for colloquial terms semantically similar to those used to describe cancer screening tests. The team first retrieved 250 YouTube videos resulting from a search for "colonoscopy," then used word embedding to find another 4,304 videos. Results often included colon preparation brand names in user-generated content where "colonoscopy" may have been absent, while searches for seed terms like "FOBT" (fecal occult blood test), "mammogram," and "pap smear" returned similar results. "The whole purpose of this is to find out what someone who's not certified to talk about colonoscopy will say," said Cornell's Drew Margolin.
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The Animal Translators
The New York Times
Emily Anthes
August 30, 2022
Researchers are using machine learning (ML) systems to decode animal communication. Scientists at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Brain Research used ML algorithms to analyze 36,000 mole rat chirps in seven colonies, identifying unique vocal signatures for each mole rat, as well as a distinct dialect for each colony. The multi-institutional Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative) hopes to decipher the communication of sperm whales through the efforts of ML specialists, marine biologists, roboticists, linguists, and cryptographers. The project will involve recording whale sounds and movements via underwater microphones, robotic fish, and acoustic tags. Other projects aim to build technologies that enable human-animal communication, with Hunter College's Diana Reiss envisioning "a Google Translate for animals."
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System Allows Heart Disease Detection via App
Newsweek
Simona Kitanovska
August 31, 2022
Scientists at the American Institute of Physics have built a system that can detect aortic valve stenosis, which they are attempting to convert into a phone application. Mohanachandran Nair Sindhu Swapna at India's University of Kerala said the system, created using only a stethoscope and a computer, can analyze the condition, which causes the heart's "lub-dub" sounds to occur at once rather than separately. The researchers used machine learning to examine a graph of points for the heart and to identify aortic valve stenosis carriers, with 100%-accurate results. Swapna said, "The proposed method can be extended to any type of heart sound signals, lung sound signals, or cough sound signals."
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YouTube More Likely to Direct Election-Fraud Videos to Users Doubting 2020 Election
New York University
September 1, 2022
New York University (NYU) researchers found YouTube algorithms were more likely to recommend election fraud-related videos to users who already doubted the legitimacy of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The most-skeptical users were shown three times as many videos as were the least-skeptical users, which highlights the risks of recommendation algorithms that give users the content they desire. YouTube's algorithms directed skeptics to an average of eight additional videos about possible fraud in the 2020 election. Said NYU's James Bisbee, "Our findings uncover the detrimental consequences of recommendation algorithms and cast doubt on the view that online information environments are solely determined by user choice."
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AI, GPS Technology Could Save Lives in Wildfires, Floods
The Wall Street Journal
Jim Carlton
August 30, 2022
Artificial intelligence and global positioning system (GPS) technology could help save lives in wildfires, floods, and other natural disasters by getting emergency alerts out faster. Last month, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security completed a proof-of-concept test on a satellite-based alert sent to automobiles' GPS navigation systems. Meanwhile, Pascal Schuback from the nonprofit Cascadia Region Earthquake Workgroup said he has been working with companies and organizations on a service for Amazon's Alexa virtual assistant to process emergency alerts. Schuback envisions a scenario in which Alexa could instruct a garage to open and a self-driving car to back out following an imminent tremor alert. Recent applications designed to help people keep in touch on disaster alerts include the Federal Emergency Management Agency app, which transmits real-time emergency alerts from the National Weather Service and California fire monitor Watch Duty.
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Why 'Erasure' Could Be Key to Practical Quantum Computing
Princeton University School of Engineering and Applied Science
Steven Schultz
August 31, 2022
Researchers at Princeton University, Yale University, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a method for error correction in a quantum computer's calculations. The researchers focused on physical causes of error; in their proposed system, the most common source of error eliminates damaged data instead of corrupting it. They studied the electrons in ytterbium qubits, and when errors cause the electrons to fall to the ground state from their excited state, they visibly scatter light. This means that when shining a light on ytterbium qubits, only the faulty ones light up and can be written off as errors. Said Princeton's Jeff Thompson, "These erasure errors are vastly easier to correct because you know where they are."
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Hacking Device Can Secretly Swipe, Tap Smartphone Screen
New Scientist
Jeremy Hsu
August 31, 2022
Separate teams of researchers have developed devices for remotely hacking smartphone touchscreens. Both methods involve placing devices featuring an antenna for transmitting signals and a phone locator under a table. The locator deduces the position and orientation of a touchscreen device placed on the table, then the antenna sends electromagnetic signals imitating electric field disturbances caused by physical touch. The Invisible Finger method created by University of Florida researchers caused both iOS and Android devices to recognize the electromagnetic touches; the GhostTouch technique from scientists at China's Zhejiang University worked with multiple Android devices, but could not crack the iPhone 7 Plus or certain OPPO phone models. The hacks only work with the target device lying face down and positioned close to the antenna.
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Remote Monitoring Helps Find Solutions to Crapemyrtle Bark Scale
AgriLife Today
August 31, 2022
A team led by researchers at Texas A&M University has developed an electrical penetration graph (EPG) monitoring system to identify host plants of the crapemyrtle bark scale. The insect, which has been found in 17 states, destroys plants by feeding on their sap and poses a threat to the green industry and ecosystem. The EPG monitoring system can track the insect's probing activities in the plant, helping researchers identify the nutrients it extracts to better understand which plants best serve as hosts to the insects. The combination of EPG and a custom software system enabled the researchers to determine the frequency and relative amplitude for each EPG waveform from more than 500 megabytes of raw data in just seconds. Said Texas A&M's Runshi Xie, "Our focus will be to see if we can come up with novel systems that control insects without relying too much on pesticides."
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Scientists Create Remote-Controlled Cyborg Cockroaches
SciTechDaily
September 5, 2022
An international team of scientists led by Japan's RIKEN research institute outfitted insects with a wireless control module powered by a rechargeable battery affixed to a solar cell to create remote-controlled cyborg cockroaches. The insects can move freely via ultrathin electronics and flexible materials. The researchers attached a wireless leg-control module and lithium polymer battery to the top of Madagascar cockroaches on the thorax, using a specially designed backpack. The three-dimensionally-printed backpack fit the contours of the insect perfectly, enabling it to be worn for over a month. The researchers charged the battery with pseudo-sunlight for 30 minutes, and directed the insects to turn left and right using the wireless remote control.
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COVID Radar: Genetic Sequencing Can Help Predict Severity of Next Variant
Drexel University
August 31, 2022
A machine learning model developed by Drexel University researchers can identify correlations between rising COVID-19 transmission rates and changes in the virus' genetic sequence to predict the severity of new variants. The GPBoost machine learning algorithm can identify areas of the spike protein's genetic sequence that are likely to be associated with changes in variant severity and factors in patient metadata like age and sex, as well as medical outcomes including hospitalizations and deaths. Said Drexel's Bahrad A. Sokhansanj, "When we get a sequence, we can make a prediction about risk of severe disease from a variant before labs run experiments with animal models or cell culture, or before enough people get sick that you can collect epidemiological data. In other words, our model is more like an early warning system for emerging variants."
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Ransomware Attackers Abuse Genshin Impact Anti-Cheat System to Disable Antivirus
The Hacker News
Ravie Lakshmanan
September 5, 2022
Trend Micro researchers found that cybercriminals took advantage of a vulnerable anti-cheat driver for the Genshin Impact video game to disable antivirus programs with the goal of deploying ransomware. The attackers aimed to use a legitimate device driver module with valid code signing to escalate privileges from user mode to kernel mode. The researchers found a compromised endpoint was used to connect to the domain controller via remote desktop protocol and transfer a Windows installer posing as AVG Internet Security that dropped and executed the vulnerable driver. Said the researchers, "Certificate revocation and antivirus detection might help to discourage the abuse, but there are no solutions at this time because it is a legitimate module."
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Chinese Game Company Appoints Humanoid Robot as CEO
Interesting Engineering
Nergis Firtina
September 1, 2022
Chinese mobile game company NetDragon Websoft has appointed an artificial intelligence (AI)-supported virtual human named Tang Yu as its CEO. The company said Ms. Tang Yu will serve as a real-time data center and analytics tool for the company's board, support decision-making during daily operations, and promote a fair working environment for employees. NetDragon founder Dejian Liu said, "We believe AI is the future of corporate management, and our appointment of Ms. Tang Yu represents our commitment to truly embrace the use of AI to transform the way we operate our business and ultimately drive our future strategic growth.”
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