Welcome to the May 31, 2024 edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for computer professionals three times a week.

HEADLINES AT A GLANCE

• ACM Re-elects Yannis Ioannidis as President
• Datacenters Could Use 9% of U.S. Electricity by 2030
• Jobs Dry Up for India's Elite IIT Graduates
• Browser Plug-Ins Can Help Improve Digital Privacy Literacy, Combat Manipulative Design
• Tianmouc Chip, Hybrid Camera Boost Prospect of Safer Self-Driving Vehicles
• Prisoners Using VR to Prepare for Life After Release
• FBI Takes Down Global Army of Zombie Computer Devices
• Martonosi Receives ACM Frances E. Allen Award
• Tomorrow's Digital Screens Will Let Users ‘Feel’ Items
• Precision Neuroscience Sets Brain-Chip Record with 4,096 Electrodes on Human Brain
• Her AI Arm

ACM Re-elects Yannis Ioannidis as President

ACM President Yannis Ioannidis of the University of Athens in Greece has been re-elected for a two-year term beginning July 1. Also re-elected for a two-year term was Vice President Elisa Bertino, a Purdue University professor, an ACM Fellow, and the 2019-2020 ACM Athena Lecturer. Splunk Inc.'s Rashmi Mohan was elected to a two-year term as Secretary/Treasurer. University of Michigan's Odest (Chad) Jenkins, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology's John Kim, Tanara Lauschner of Brazil's Federal University of Amazonas, independent consultant Alison Derbenwick Miller, and Zalando SE and the Institute for Ethical AI and Machine Learning's Alejandro Saucedo were elected to four-year terms as Members-at-Large.
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Datacenters Could Use 9% of U.S. Electricity by 2030

A new report from the Electric Power Research Institute found that electricity consumption by datacenters could more than double to as much as 9% of total electricity generated in the U.S. by the end of the decade. The institute said the industry's estimated annual growth rate of electricity use through 2030 ranges from 3.7% to 15%. The report called for improved datacenter energy efficiency and a boost in grid investment amid an increase in the use of generative AI.
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Jobs Dry Up for India's Elite IIT Graduates

Thousands of students at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) have not found jobs even as placement seasons near their close, raising concerns AI is usurping jobs for a talent pool that traditionally has powered India's software services industry. The 23 IITs produce about 25,000 engineers every year, about 2% of India's roughly 1.5 million engineers. "This crisis is the canary in the coal mine," said former Microsoft India Chair Ravi Venkatesan, an IIT alumnus.
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Browser Plug-Ins Can Help Improve Digital Privacy Literacy, Combat Manipulative Design

The Google Chrome Privacy Sandbox browser plug-in developed by University of Notre Dame researchers can help users see how different websites target them based on age, race, location, income, and household size. Another Chrome browser plug-in the researchers developed, called Dark Pita, can detect dark patterns on Amazon, YouTube, Netflix, Facebook, and X and explain their impact. Neither plug-in is available to the public yet.
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Tianmouc Chip, Hybrid Camera Boost Prospect of Safer Self-Driving Vehicles

Researchers at China's Tsinghua University developed a new chip for autonomous driving systems, the Tianmouc chip, which merges low-accuracy, fast event-based detection with slower but more accurate image visualization. Meanwhile, researchers at Switzerland's University of Zurich developed a hybrid camera that combines event processing with high-bandwidth imaging processing to address perceptual and computational latency. The hybrid object detector can reduce the time needed for detection in high-speed scenarios.
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Prisoners Using VR to Prepare for Life After Release

The Maryland Correctional Institution for Women has partnered with the Baltimore nonprofit Vehicles for Change to offer a VR training program for inmates, preparing them for jobs as auto technicians upon release. So far, 15 women have graduated from the program since its 2023 inception. Using VR headsets, participants can use different tools and operate the lift in a virtual auto repair garage. Vehicles for Change's Martin Schwartz said, "[VR] is number one going to be the way we train the skill trades in five years across the board."
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FBI Takes Down Global Army of Zombie Computer Devices

The FBI has dismantled the world's largest botnet, comprised of 19 million infected computers across more than 190 countries. The botnet was used to facilitate financial fraud, identity theft, child exploitation, bomb threats, and cyberattacks. More than 613,000 IP addresses in the U.S. were associated with the botnet. A Chinese citizen was arrested in Singapore and charged in connection with the alleged deployment of malware and the creation and operation of the "911 S5" residential proxy service.
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Martonosi Receives ACM Frances E. Allen Award

ACM has named Princeton University's Margaret Martonosi recipient of the ACM Frances E. Allen Award for Outstanding Mentoring. Martonosi was recognized for her mentoring efforts in the field of computer architecture and to the larger computer science community at Princeton. Among other things, Martonosi established the Discipline Specific Workshops program to bolster the participation of women and members of underrepresented groups in computing.
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Tomorrow's Digital Screens Will Let Users ‘Feel’ Items

Computer scientists at the U.K.'s University of Bath developed a digital touch screen that can become softer or stiffer based on the user's finger pressure. With DeformIO, consumers could one day "feel" items through their phone display, with potential applications in gaming, medical simulations, online purchases, and more. DeformIO is made of silicone and detects pressure using pneumatics and resistive sensing.
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Precision Neuroscience Sets Brain-Chip Record with 4,096 Electrodes on Human Brain

Precision Neuroscience achieved a new world record by placing 4,096 electrodes on a living human's brain, up from the previous record of 2,048 in 2023. The record was set in April, when neurosurgeons at Mount Sinai Health System in New York placed a Precision brain-computer interface device on the brain of a patient during surgery to remove a benign brain tumor. Precision researchers then used the electrode arrays to record detailed neuronal activity from about 8 square centimeters of the patient's brain.
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Her AI Arm

A robotic arm equipped with machine learning software from Coapt allows Sarah de Lagarde to make coffee, straighten her hair, and hug her daughter. Coapt's Blair Lock said, "When we get the opportunity to show people AI that is truly assistive for helping somebody, that's positive." However, de Lagarde's full arm, with each component made by a different company, cost around $190,000. She also must contend with the weight of the prosthetic and its lack of tactile function.
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