Welcome to the May 17, 2023, edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for IT professionals three times a week.
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Celebrating Those Who Advance Computing as a Science, Profession
ACM
May 17, 2023
ACM has recognized four people with its 2022 Service Awards for expanding its mission of "Advancing Computing as a Science and Profession." ACM named Michael E. Caspersen at Denmark's Aarhus University to receive the Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award for his computer science education research, national and international policy efforts to further informatics education, and exceptional service to the computing education community. The University of California, Irvine's Ramesh Jain will receive the ACM Distinguished Service Award for founding ACM's Special Interest Group for Multimedia, and for 40 years of leadership and commitment to ACM and the computing community. In recognition of 27 years of dedicated service and leadership, Joseph A. Konstan at the University of Minnesota will receive the Outstanding Contribution to ACM Award, while the University of California, Berkeley's Jelani Nelson will receive the ACM Eugene L. Lawler Award for establishing the AddisCoder nonprofit to educate underserved students across Ethiopia.
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How to Spy on Condor Parents with a High-Tech Egg
The New York Times
Emily Anthes
May 16, 2023
The Oregon Zoo is using three-dimensionally printed "smart eggs" to better monitor its breeding program for critically endangered California condors. Developed by San Jose State University's Scott Shaffer and Texas A&M University's Constance Woodman, the smart eggs are equipped with sensors and data loggers to monitor and record conditions in the nest, including temperature, egg-turning behavior, and ambient sound, to help the zoo replicate these conditions in its artificial incubators. In designing the smart eggs, the researchers had to ensure the shells were thin enough for the sensors to measure temperature changes but strong enough to hold up to abuse by birds. The data collected by the smart eggs will be used to determine incubator settings for future breeding seasons.
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When Does the Gender Gap Start in the Computer Science Field?
University of Houston News
Sally Strong
May 16, 2023
A study led by the University of Houston's Allison Master found that the gender gap in computer science begins in elementary school. The researchers found that girls and boys in grades one to three were equally interested in learning coding skills and equally confident in the lessons. However, negative stereotypes emerge around third grade that lead to a decrease in coding interest and confidence to learn among girls, while interest and confidence continue to grow among boys. Master said, "It's no coincidence that this is approximately the age when kids start taking notice of things like social media, as well as books and TV programs that usually depict smart scientists as white or Asian men, rarely a woman of any description. It sends a huge signal."
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3D-Knitted Robots
Harvard University John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Kat J. McAlpine
May 15, 2023
Researchers at Harvard University, the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute (RI), the Rhode Island School of Design, the Parsons School of Design, and the Fashion Institute of Technology printed soft robots using three-dimensional (3D) knitting technology. RI's James McCann helped develop software to automate the knitting process, which involved developing soft actuators to create a set of parametric patterns. The researchers defined the patterns with knitting descriptions written in general-purpose coding languages, then composed code to run those descriptions on a knitting machine. They tested 20 combinations of yarn, structure, and other factors to describe the effect of diverse knit architectures on folding and unfolding, structural geometry, and tensile properties, which were translated into robot prototypes.
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U.K.'s First Driverless Bus Begins Passenger Service in Edinburgh
BBC News
May 15, 2023
The Stagecoach U.K. Bus company is operating the U.K.'s first full-sized autonomous buses in Edinburgh. The self-driving vehicles carry passengers on a 14-mile route from the Ferrytoll park-and-ride in Fife over the Forth Road Bridge to Edinburgh Park station. Two staff members accompany the passengers, one to monitor the driverless technology and the other to help passengers board and purchase tickets. The five single-decker buses are equipped with sensors that allow them to drive on pre-selected roads at up to 50 mph (about 80 kph) while navigating roundabouts, traffic lights, and lane changes. The AB1 service, which could accommodate around 10,000 passenger journeys per week, is part of the government-funded Project CAVForth, in which Stagecoach partnered with Fusion Processing Ltd., Transport Scotland, Alexander Dennis, Edinburgh Napier University, and Bristol Robotics Laboratory.
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Quantum Computing Algorithm Brings Practical Use Closer to Reality
Tom's Hardware
Francisco Pires
May 15, 2023
Researchers at Japan's Riken Center for Quantum Computing (RQC) designed an algorithm that accelerates the quantum computing workload known as time-evolution operators. RQC's Kaoru Mizuta explained time-evolution operators "are huge grids of numbers that describe the complex behaviors of quantum materials," which are "of great importance because they give quantum computers a very practical application: better understanding quantum chemistry and the physics of solids." The enhanced algorithm eliminates the Trotterization method quantum computers previously implemented, which requires massive numbers of quantum gates that each demand a variable number of quantum bits programmed to execute a given function. The algorithm, a hybrid of classical and quantum methods, could potentially boost the simplicity of future quantum systems, as well as enabling conventional computers to process quantum computer-level degrees of complexity.
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Simulation Provides Images from the Carbon Nucleus
University of Bonn (Germany)
May 15, 2023
An international team of scientists from Germany and the U.S. modeled all known energy states of a carbon nucleus. Ulf Meißner at Germany's University of Bonn and colleagues confirmed the arrangement of the carbon nucleus' protons and neutrons (nucleons) in the enigmatic Hoyle state, keeping them in strictly defined positions by arraying them along the nodes of a three-dimensional lattice. This enabled the calculation of the nucleons' motions on the JEWELS supercomputer at Germany's Forschungszentrum Jülich; several million simulations under distinct starting conditions revealed the particles' most likely positions. Meißner said the resulting images from the carbon nucleus showed the particles do not exist independently of each other, but cluster into groups of two neutrons and two protons each.
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Robot Injected in the Skull Spreads Tentacles to Monitor the Brain
New Scientist
Jeremy Hsu
May 10, 2023
A soft robot developed by researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology can be inserted into a tiny hole in the skull to monitor electrical activity in the brain. The 2-cm-long robot is comprised of 6 electrode-containing legs made of flexible silicone polymer, which when fully extended have a diameter of 4 cm. The legs were designed to expand gently while minimizing pressure on the brain and to deflate after monitoring for easy removal. The incorporation of strain sensors eliminates the need for additional cameras or external sensors to determine whether the robot's legs are fully deployed.
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Tetris Reveals How People Respond to an Unfair AI
Cornell Chronicle
Tom Fleischman
May 15, 2023
Cornell University researchers experimented with a two-player version of the videogame Tetris to explore people's reactions to unfair treatment by humans and artificial intelligence (AI). Former Cornell researcher Houston B. Claure modified Tetris to require two players to cooperate to complete each block-stacking round, with either a human or an algorithmic "allocator" determining which player takes turns. Players who received fewer turns were highly aware of their partners' disproportionate allocations, but their response was largely consistent whether a human or an AI was the allocator. Players receiving more turns saw their partners as less dominant during AI allocation, while scores were usually worse with equal, rather than unequal, allocations.
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Smart Ball Technology to Be Trialed at Rugby's U20 World Championship
Associated Press
Steve Douglas
May 17, 2023
Smart ball technology will be tested at the under-20 World Rugby championship in South Africa next month, in response to match officials' desire to investigate technology for accurate, quick decision-making. Participants will track the smart ball three-dimensionally and in real time, with beacons around the field ascertaining its position up to 20 times a second and supplying instant feedback on every maneuver. The technology also can measure the ball's velocity relative to the player as it leaves their hands to inform forward pass decisions, whether it has been touched "in flight," and its live location to assess its position relative to the tryline. A TV match official will receive a direct feed to provide feedback to the referee. World Rugby's Phil Davies said the technology "has the potential to help aid the flow of the game, reduce stoppage time, and speed up match official decision-making."
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Finding 'Hot Spots' Where Compounding Environmental, Economic Risks Converge
MIT News
Mark Dwortzan
May 12, 2023
A computational tool developed by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change can pinpoint U.S. counties prone to economic strain from switching to low-carbon energy sources from fossil fuels. The STRESS (System for the Triage of Risks from Environmental and Socio-economic Stressors) platform displays risk for such economic distress on a map, showing counties most likely to benefit from green job retraining initiatives. The multi-sector dynamics-based platform taps data including biodiversity, demographics, and environmental equity so users can evaluate risks within a geographical region. MIT's C. Adam Schlosser said, "The STRESS platform provides decision-makers with an efficient way to combine and analyze data on those risks that matter most to them, identify 'hot spots' of compounding risk, and design interventions to minimize that risk."
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Cameras, Facial Recognition Watch Public Housing
The Washington Post
Douglas MacMillan
May 16, 2023
Local officials are deploying advanced surveillance systems incorporating artificial intelligence technology in public housing facilities across the U.S. to monitor residents round the clock. Facial recognition-equipped cameras in Scott County, VA, scan all passersby to identify people banned from public housing, while software mines hours of recordings in New Bedford, MA, to detect movement near doorways of residents suspected of breaking overnight guest rules. The systems are being installed without any guidance or regulation, despite little knowledge about the risks involved or the safety they purportedly provide. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) allocated security grants to subsidize camera purchases, but various parties allege the cameras are being used to collect evidence to punish and evict residents, sometimes for minor infractions.
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Flaws Found in Using Source Reputation for Training Automatic Misinformation Detection Algorithms
Rutgers Today
Carol Peters
May 16, 2023
Rutgers University scientists found algorithms trained to detect "fake news" may have a flawed approach for assessing the credibility of online news stories. The researchers said most of these programs do not evaluate an article's credibility, but instead rely on a credibility score for the article’s sources. They rated the credibility and political leaning of 1,000 news articles and incorporated the assessment into misinformation-detection algorithms, then evaluated the labeling methodology's impact on the algorithms' performance. Article-level source labels matched just 51% of the time, illustrating the source reputation method's lack of reliability. In response, the researchers created a new dataset of journalistic-quality, individually labeled articles and a process for misinformation detection and fairness audits.
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