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dateMore Than a Year Ago
subjectTheory
authorMIT News Office
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An edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.


Where to Grab Space Debris
From ACM News

Where to Grab Space Debris

Objects in space tend to spin—and spin in a way that's totally different from the way they spin on earth.

Origami Robot Folds Itself ­p, Crawls Away
From ACM News

Origami Robot Folds Itself ­p, Crawls Away

For years, a team of researchers at MIT and Harvard University has been working on origami robots—reconfigurable robots that would be able to fold themselves into...

Harnessing the Speed of Light
From ACM Opinion

Harnessing the Speed of Light

The fields of data communication, fabrication, and ultrasound imaging share a common challenge when it comes to improving speed and efficiency: light's diffraction...

Researchers ­nveil Experimental 36-Core Chip
From ACM News

Researchers ­nveil Experimental 36-Core Chip

The more cores—or processing units—a computer chip has, the bigger the problem of communication between cores becomes.

Think Fast, Robot
From ACM News

Think Fast, Robot

One of the reasons we don't yet have self-driving cars and mini-helicopters delivering online purchases is that autonomous vehicles tend not to perform well under...

Bake Your Own Robot
From ACM News

Bake Your Own Robot

Printable robots—those that can be assembled from parts produced by 3-D printers—have long been a topic of research in the lab of Daniela Rus, the Andrew and Erna...

Terahertz Imaging on the Cheap
From ACM News

Terahertz Imaging on the Cheap

Terahertz imaging, which is already familiar from airport security checkpoints, has a number of other promising applications—from explosives detection to collision...

Computer System Automatically Solves Word Problems
From ACM News

Computer System Automatically Solves Word Problems

Researchers in MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, working with colleagues at the University of Washington, have developed a new computer...

Excitons Observed in Action for the First Time
From ACM News

Excitons Observed in Action for the First Time

A quasiparticle called an exciton—responsible for the transfer of energy within devices such as solar cells, LEDs, and semiconductor circuits—has been understood...

New 'switch' Could Power Quantum Computing
From ACM News

New 'switch' Could Power Quantum Computing

Using a laser to place individual rubidium atoms near the surface of a lattice of light, scientists at MIT and Harvard University have developed a new method for...

The Complexonaut
From ACM Opinion

The Complexonaut

When he was in elementary school, Scott Aaronson, like many mathematically precocious kids of his generation, dreamed of making his own video games.

Orienteering For Robots
From ACM News

Orienteering For Robots

Suppose you're trying to navigate an unfamiliar section of a big city, and you’re using a particular cluster of skyscrapers as a reference point.

Soft Robotic Fish Moves Like the Real Thing
From ACM News

Soft Robotic Fish Moves Like the Real Thing

Soft robots—which don’t just have soft exteriors but are also powered by fluid flowing through flexible channels—have become a sufficiently popular research topic...

Self-Completing Programs
From ACM News

Self-Completing Programs

Since he was a graduate student, Armando Solar-Lezama, an associate professor in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, has been working...

Smarter Caching
From ACM News

Smarter Caching

Computer chips keep getting faster because transistors keep getting smaller.

From ACM News

Herding Robots

Writing a program to control a single autonomous robot navigating an uncertain environment with an erratic communication link is hard enough; write one for multiple...

Seeing Things: A New Transparent Display System Could Provide Heads-up Data
From ACM News

Seeing Things: A New Transparent Display System Could Provide Heads-up Data

Transparent displays have a variety of potential applications—such as the ability to see navigation or dashboard information while looking through the windshield...

Marvin Minsky Honored For Lifetime Achievements in Artificial Intelligence
From ACM News

Marvin Minsky Honored For Lifetime Achievements in Artificial Intelligence

MIT Media Lab professor emeritus Marvin Minsky, 86, a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence, has won the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award...

New Algorithm Can Dramatically Streamline Solutions to the 'max Flow' Problem
From ACM News

New Algorithm Can Dramatically Streamline Solutions to the 'max Flow' Problem

Finding the most efficient way to transport items across a network like the U.S. highway system or the Internet is a problem that has taxed mathematicians and computer...

New System Allows For High-Accuracy, Through-Wall, 3D Motion Tracking
From ACM News

New System Allows For High-Accuracy, Through-Wall, 3D Motion Tracking

Imagine playing a video game like Call of Duty or Battlefield and having the ability to lead your virtual army unit while moving freely throughout your house.
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