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Welcome to the December 5, 2022, edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for IT professionals three times a week.

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People protesting in China, where the police have bought powerful facial recognition software and programmed it to identify local citizens. How China's Police Used Phones, Faces to Track Protesters
The New York Times
Paul Mozur; Claire Fu; Amy Chang Chien
December 2, 2022


China's police used an advanced surveillance system to track protesters who rallied against the government's pandemic policies this past week. The system enables authorities to target, detain, and intimidate protest organizers and vocal dissidents. Its tools include millions of cameras, facial recognition software programmed to identify local citizens, phone monitors, and data- and image-crunching applications. The phone trackers connect to and record data on the phones of passersby for police to review. Many protesters said they now avoid using virtual private networks or other foreign apps like Telegram and Signal out of fear their phones' software might be more closely monitored.

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Robot Design May Revolutionize How We Build Things in Space
SciTechDaily
December 1, 2022


Researchers at the U.K.'s University of Lincoln (UoL) designed an end-over-end walking (E-Walker) robot for space construction projects. The E-Walker robot features seven degrees-of-freedom motion capabilities. UoL's Manu Nair and colleagues conducted an exercise in which they tested the E-Walker on the in-orbit assembly of a 25-meter (82-foot) Large Aperture Space Telescope. Nair said, "The proposed innovative E-Walker design proves to be versatile and an ideal candidate for future in-orbit missions. The E-Walker would be able to extend the life cycle of a mission by carrying out routine maintenance and servicing missions post assembly, in space."

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SALIENT optimizes hardware usage, improving the training and inference performance of graph neural networks by identifying and addressing three key bottlenecks in the computation pipeline. Sampling, Pipelining Method Speeds Deep Learning on Large Graphs
MIT News
Lauren Hinkel
November 29, 2022


The SAmpling, sLIcing, and data movemeNT (SALIENT) methodology devised by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and IBM Research scientists enhances graph neural networks (GNNs)' training and inference by clearing three bottlenecks in the computational pipeline. The researchers applied optimization to increase graphics processing unit (GPU) utilization in the PyTorch Geometric library for GNNs from 10% to 30%, improving performance up to double that of public benchmark codes. They addressed bottlenecks caused by graph sampling and mini-batch preparation algorithms at the beginning of the data pipeline by combining data structures and algorithmic optimizations, improving the sampling operation about threefold. MIT's Nickolas Stathas said SALIENT leveraged modern processors to further reduce per-epoch runtime via parallelizing feature slicing.

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Andrea Morello explains how the Maxwell's Demon thought experiment was analogous to his team's achievement by selecting only cool electrons for quantum computations. Quantum Computing Feat Is Modern Twist on 150-Year-Old Thought Experiment
UNSW Sydney Newsroom (Australia)
November 30, 2022


Engineers at Australia's University of New South Wales, Sydney (UNSW Sydney) used a updated version of the 150-year-old Maxwell's demon concept to reset a quantum bit to its "0" state. UNSW Sydney's Andrea Morello said the demon in this case is a fast digital voltmeter observing the temperature of an electron drawn randomly from a warm pool, which is colder than the pool and "corresponds to a high certainty of it being in the '0' computational state." The researchers used a real-time decision-making processor within the voltmeter to decide whether to retain the electron for further computations. Morello said the experiment improved the accuracy of quantum computer resetting 20-fold, reducing preparation errors from 20% to 1%.

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Personalized Finger Joint Implants from a 3D Printer
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (Germany)
December 1, 2022


Germany's FingerKIt consortium uses artificial intelligence (AI) to three-dimensionally (3D)-print personalized finger joint implants to replace an individual’s diseased or injured joints. FingerKit combines the expertise of five institutes in Germany’s Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft research organization to produce implants from metallic or ceramic materials. AI-based software converts two-dimensional X-rays into 3D models of finger bones and fixes any malposition. Researchers then employ AI to extrapolate individual implant designs from the finger model, which is 3D-printed via metal binder jetting and sintering. The researchers initially calculated that this process could potentially save up to 60% of the time typically required for the process, from identifying the need for an implant to fitting it in the patient.

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A woman wearing a smartwatch and monitoring it on her phone. Wearable Devices Accurately Predict Fitness Levels
University of Cambridge (U.K.)
December 1, 2022


Scientists at the U.K.'s University of Cambridge have measured individuals’ overall fitness accurately using wearable devices that do not require the user to exercise. The researchers compiled activity data from more than 11,000 study participants using wearable sensors, then tested a subgroup of 2,675 participants seven years later. They used the data to create a model for predicting VO2max—an overall fitness metric and predictor of heart disease and mortality risk—for validation against a third cohort of 181 participants engaged in a laboratory-based exercise test. The algorithm agreed closely with measured VO2max scores at baseline and in follow-up testing. "This study is a perfect demonstration of how we can leverage expertise across epidemiology, public health, machine learning, and signal processing," said Cambridge's Ignacio Perez-Pouelo.

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IISc Scientists Build Energy-Efficient Computing Platforms to Beat Power Deficit
TechCircle
December 2, 2022


An energy-efficient computing platform developed by researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) uses memristors based on metal-organic complexes to reduce the number of necessary components in a circuit. IISc's Sreetosh Goswami said, "We have now discovered a molecular circuit element that can capture complex logic functions within itself, facilitating in-memory computations in a smaller number of time steps and using much fewer elements than usual." Performing computation and storage at the same physical location helps reduce computing energy needs. A circuit potentially could be adapted for multiple functions via small chemical modifications, such as adding or swapping ions in the complexes. Compared to a traditional complementary metal-oxide semiconductor circuit, the researchers said the new platform was 47 times more energy-efficient, 93 times faster, and took up only 9% of its physical footprint.

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Facebook Failed to Stop Ads Threatening Election Workers
The New York Times
Stuart A. Thompson
December 1, 2022


Researchers at the watchdog group Global Witness and New York University's Cybersecurity for Democracy tested Facebook's automated moderation system by submitting ads around Election Day that contained direct threats against election workers. Although Facebook contends it prohibits content that threatens serious violence, the test showed that 15 of the 20 ads containing violent content were approved; the ads were deleted before publication. The researchers noted all the ads were rejected by TikTok and YouTube and the accounts associated with them were suspended. The researchers said, "The fact that YouTube and TikTok managed to detect the death threats and suspend our account, whereas Facebook permitted the majority of the ads to be published, shows that what we are asking is technically possible."

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Process Allows 3D Printing of Microscale Metallic Parts
California Institute of Technology
Robert Perkins
November 30, 2022


California Institute of Technology engineers have three-dimensionally (3D)-printed pure multicomponent metals at an order of magnitude smaller than previously achieved. The technique forgoes writing metals directly in favor of printing a hydrogel as a scaffold for metal-impregnated liquid precursors. Light from a low-powered ultraviolet lamp causes liquid polymers to harden, which when patterned can create desired microscopic shapes. The researchers infuse metal salts dissolved in water into the hydrogel scaffolds, then burn away the hydrogel portion to leave the metal intact. The heat causes shrinkage, enabling the researchers to 3D-print metal alloys and multicomponent metallic systems about 40 microns in size.

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The U.S. Steel Gary Works plant in Indiana is using AI tools in production. U.S. Steel Looks to Forge High-Tech Future at Mills New and Old
The Wall Street Journal
Isabelle Bousquette
December 1, 2022


U.S. Steel Corp. is looking to implement artificial intelligence (AI) across its mills, although it has proven difficult to deploy AI technology at its older mills. Some of the equipment at U.S. Steel's 110-year-old Gary Works mill in Indiana, for instance, dates to the 1950s and 1960s. U.S. Steel's Christian Holliday said each mill needs its own AI model based on its unique environment. However, machines at older mills must be retrofit with sensors and cameras to collect the necessary data, and they often lack wireless network capacity for sensors. Nevertheless, machine-learning algorithms are being implemented at Gary Works to boost efficiency, and a digital twin is being developed to predict finish times and optimize output.

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Never-Before-Seen Malware Nuking Data in Russia's Courts, Mayors' Offices
Ars Technica
Dan Goodin
December 2, 2022


Researchers at Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky and news service Izvestia warned of never-before-encountered CryWiper malware besieging mayors' offices and courts in Russia. The Kaspersky researchers named the malware after the .cry extension appended to corrupted data. Izvestia said once infecting a victim, CryWiper leaves a ransom note demanding 0.5 bitcoin and a wallet address to send the payment; the Kaspersky analysts said the Trojan then permanently destroys the target data. CryWiper uses the same algorithm as the IsaacWiper malware directed against targets in Ukraine, which generates pseudo-random numbers that infect files by overwriting data within them. "In many cases, wiper and ransomware incidents are caused by insufficient network security, and it is the strengthening of protection that should be paid attention to," the Kaspersky researchers said.

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Radiation (blue) emanates from dense filaments of stars and galaxies (white) in this snapshot from a new simulation of the early universe. Supercomputer Simulation Animates Evolution of the Universe
ScienceNews
James R. Riordon
December 2, 2022


An international team of researchers has engineered the most accurate supercomputer animation of the cosmos' early evolution to date. The simulation represents the third version of the Cosmic Dawn Project (CoDaIII), which the University of Texas at Austin's Paul Shapiro described as the first model to fully encompass the interaction between radiation and the flow of matter in the universe. CoDaIII spans the period from about 10 million years after the Big Bang through the next several billion years, as matter composing the modern cosmos diffused. Shapiro said the animation depicts how the early universe's structure is "imprinted on the galaxies today, which remember their youth, or their birth, or their ancestors from the epoch of reionization."

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