Welcome to the December 19, 2022, edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for IT professionals three times a week.

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Vint Cerf photographed at his home in McLean, VA Vint Cerf Helped Create the Internet on the Back of an Envelope. Now He's Calling for More Critical Thinking About How We Use It
The Wall Street Journal
Emily Bobrow
December 16, 2022


Google Chief Internet Evangelist and 2004 ACM A.M. Turing Award co-recipient Vint Cerf helped invent the Internet but acknowledges its downsides, including its use for spreading misinformation and disinformation. Cerf says addressing this "propagation problem" requires Google and similar companies to better "understand how these mechanisms influence the way people behave." He observes that although commercialization has broadened the Internet's scope, feedback algorithms appear to be directing people toward "more divisive and extreme stuff." Cerf urges more critical thinking to rein in the Internet's sociological and psychological effects, while businesses must make better efforts to contain online trolling, lying, bullying, and surveillance.

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Flying Snakes Help Scientists Design Robots
AIP Publishing
December 13, 2022


Researchers at the University of Virginia (UVA) and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University modeled the dynamics of flying snakes, in order to design robots that can replicate their gliding motion. Flying snakes undulate side-to-side as they glide from the tops of trees to the ground; the researchers analyzed the reptiles' lift production mechanism using a computational model based on data from high-speed video. The model includes the cross-sectional shape of the snake's body, through which the researchers learned leading edge vortices last longer at the curves in the body before being shed. The researchers hope such insights will improve their understanding of gliding motion, leading to a more optimal design for gliding snake robots.

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Software developer Jaydeep Vacchani who has found his skills are in demand despite the surge of layoffs in the technology sector Skilled Tech Workers Snapped Up Despite Downturn
BBC News
David Silverberg
December 15, 2022


Layoffs.fyi reported that over 900 tech companies have laid off 143,500 employees this year. Nevertheless, skilled tech workers with experience in artificial intelligence and data science remain in high demand in Silicon Valley as companies increase their focus on data collection and processing for organizational purposes and to learn more about customers. Author Margaret O'Mara said companies "want to ensure that there are voices in the room that understand the sociology of the products they produce and the impact they have on various geographies and political systems." Craig Freedberg of recruiting firm Robert Half said companies in need of tech workers and software developers likely will hire temporary workers instead of adding to headcounts.

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A medical robot that guides a flexible needle into the lungs of pigs. Robot Guides Needle into Lungs More Accurately than Human Doctors
New Scientist
Jeremy Hsu
December 9, 2022


Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC Chapel Hill) have developed a flexible needle that can be steered by a robot into the lungs, allowing for safer, more accurate biopsies, drug delivery, cancer treatment, and other procedures. In tests involving the lungs of living pigs, three-dimensional X-rays were used to identify a target in the lungs. The researchers also developed algorithms that can identify the best path for the needle to reach the target while avoiding airways and other obstacles; the algorithms recalculate the route if issues arise. The researchers observed targeting errors of 3.4 millimeters on average for the autonomous flexible needle, versus an average of 14.7 millimeters for human physicians performing traditional bronchoscopies.

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Microscale 3D Printer for Multi-Level Anticounterfeiting Labels
University of Hong Kong
December 13, 2022


University of Hong Kong (HKU) engineers designed a microscale three-dimensional (3D) printing method for fabricating anticounterfeiting labels that can encrypt more digital data than two-dimensional labels. HKU's Jihyuk Yang said the researchers used diphenylalanine (FF) as the encryption medium because of its piezoelectrical and optical birefringence properties. HKU's Ji Tae Kim said the methodology integrates with molecular self-assembly to "print multi-segmented 3D FF micro-pixels with programmed crystallinity for high-density data encryption. By utilizing different responses of the amorphous and crystalline segments to polarized light, a tiny single 3D pixel can encrypt a multi-digit binary code consisting of '0' and '1.'"

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Some Miami residents can order Uber Eats food deliveries to be delivered via autonomous, sidewalk-trotting robots. Uber Eats Launches Robot Delivery Service in Miami
CNN
Catherine Thorbecke
December 15, 2022


Ride-hailing company Uber Eats has launched a robot food delivery service in Miami via a partnership with robotics firm Cartken. Cartken's website says its six-wheeled robots feature sensors and cameras to evade collisions and select routes with the fewest hazards. Uber Eats will notify customers when their food is en route, then instruct them to meet the remotely supervised robot on the sidewalk. They can unlock the vehicle with their phone and retrieve their order from a secure compartment. The food delivery option initially will be available in Miami-Dade County's Dadeland region, with further expansion in the county and additional cities planned for next year.

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2D Material May Enable Ultra-Sharp Cellphone Photos in Low Light
Pennsylvania State University News
Jamie Oberdick
December 9, 2022


Researchers at Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) have developed a pixel sensor using a novel two-dimensional material that could allow mobile phones to take ultra-sharp phones with low-energy in-sensor image processing. The sensor uses a molybdenum disulfide semiconductor featuring strong signal conversion, charge-to-voltage conversion, and data transmission capabilities. The researchers arranged the sensors into a nine-square-millimeter array comprised of 900 pixels, each of which take up around 100 micrometers. Penn State's Darsith Jayachandran said, "They are much more sensitive to light than current CMOS sensors, so they do not require any additional circuitry or energy use. So, each pixel requires much less energy to operate, and this would mean a better cellphone camera that uses a lot less battery."

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Servers at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi are still not back to normal two weeks after they were hacked. Cyberattacks on Hospitals Thwart India's Push to Digitize Healthcare
NPR
Raksha Kumar
December 17, 2022


Massive cyberattacks targeting hospitals in India have undermined the nation's healthcare digitization initiatives. Last month, hackers compromised the health data of millions of patients at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences with ransomware. The breach has unsettled observers about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's National Digital Health Mission to digitize all Indians' health records, since India lacks resilient cybersecurity systems and strong data protection laws. The mission makes hospitals responsible for storing and protecting patient data, but Srinivas Kodali with the Free Software Movement of India says the government should provide such protection if the goal is to establish a unique national health ID.

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The Artists Protest AI-Generated Artwork on ArtStation
Ars Technica
Benj Edwards
December 15, 2022


Members of the ArtStation online community are protesting the presence of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated artwork on the site by adding "No AI Art" images to their portfolios. The protest takes aim at Stable Diffusion, an open source image-synthesis model that generates novel images from test descriptions or prompts, because its training dataset featured publicly accessible artwork scraped from ArtStation without the artists' permission, among other criticisms. ArtStation has issued an FAQ in response to the protest indicating it will not ban AI-generated artwork and will add tags "enabling artists to choose to explicitly allow or disallow the use of their art for (1) training non-commercial AI research, and (2) training commercial AI."

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Scientists Apply ML Method to Help Diagnose Deadly Respiratory Illness
UC San Diego Today
Emerson Dameron
December 13, 2022


Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, the Indian Institute of Technology, and the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) have developed a novel machine learning algorithm to help diagnose pneumonia from chest x-rays. The model features a two-way confirmation system that could complement clinicians and minimize human and computer error. Former IIIT researcher Abhibha Gupta said the three-level optimization model builds on earlier neural architecture search-based frameworks to find the best architecture from a set of candidates for detecting pneumonia. Gupta said this involves implementing the Learning By Teaching framework, which "consists of a teacher and student model that train together in an end-to-end manner to improve their learning abilities."

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Gen Z Overwhelmed by 'Tech Shame' at Work
Fortune
Chloe Berger
December 15, 2022


An HP survey of 10,000 office workers worldwide found Generation Z employees are most likely to feel technological frustration at work, with 20% of younger respondents feeling judged for having technology issues, versus one in 25 older-generation workers. The survey also found Gen Z employees to be 10 times more likely to feel shame when encountering such issues than those older than 40. HP's Debbie Irish said this "tech shame" might be related to an inability to afford better gear or Wi-Fi as senior co-workers can. Irish also said Gen Z employees "have less face-to-face time in the office than any other generation, and have limited access to senior employees, mentors, and even their bosses."

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NIST Revises Guidelines for Digital Identification in Federal Systems
U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology
December 16, 2022


The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has drafted revised federal guidelines that support risk-informed management of Americans' digital identities. The draft publication encompasses technical requirements for establishing and authenticating digital identities of individuals, including employees of government contractors or members of the general public. They cover privacy requirements, factors for cultivating equity and usability of digital identity solutions, and supporting technologies and protocols, with risks faced by individuals accessing services and by service-providing organizations considered in parallel. Updates include a section on biometric information usage for identity proofing; more phishing-resistant authentication methods; and recommendations for sharing/exchanging user identity information between different systems. NIST's Laurie E. Locascio said the guidelines are designed to "get the right services to the right people while preventing fraud, preserving privacy, fostering equity, and delivering high-quality, usable services to all."

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