ACM TechNews, Friday, November 22, 2024

Welcome to the November 22, 2024 edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for computer professionals three times a week.

Gordon Bell Prize Team Presents Record-Breaking Algorithm for Chemistry and Biology

ACM named an eight-member team drawn from Australian and U.S. institutions to receive the 2024 ACM Gordon Bell Prize for the project, “Breaking the Million-Electron and 1 EFLOP/s Barriers: Biomolecular-Scale Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics Using MP2 Potentials.” Using a new technique, the team achieved a record-breaking performance in simulating more than a million electrons for a computational chemistry application, and scaled their algorithm to an EFlop/s.
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U.S. Ahead in AI Innovation, Easily Surpassing China

The U.S. leads the world in developing AI technology, surpassing China in research and other important measures of AI innovation, according to a newly released AI Index by Stanford University's Institute for Human-Centered AI. “The gap is actually widening," said Ray Perrault, director of the committee that runs the index. “The U.S. is investing a lot more, at least at the level of firm creation and firm funding."
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Australia Introduces Bill to Limit Under-16s from Using Social Media

Australia on Thursday introduced an amendment to the Online Safety Act in Parliament that sets 16 as the minimum age for access to social media. The restriction is expected apply to social media services including TikTok, X, Instagram, and Snapchat, though a list of banned services has not been released. The legislation includes financial penalties of up to A$50 million for companies found not to have taken “reasonable steps to prevent age-restricted users having accounts.”
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Israeli-led Consortium Publishes Cell Atlas of the Human Body

Scientists unveiled the first draft of the Human Cell Atlas, a comprehensive database of human cells, publishing a collection of more than 40 peer-reviewed papers from Nature and other journals. The project, launched in 2016, aims to create comprehensive reference maps of all human cells as a basis for understanding human health and for diagnosing, monitoring, and treating disease.
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College Board Pilot Program Boosts Career Education

The nonprofit College Board is expanding into career and technical education with courses that allow high school students nationwide to take career-oriented AP-equivalent courses. In the 2024-25 school year, the board launched its Career Kickstart program with two pilot courses for a cybersecurity pathway at two high schools in San Antonio, TX. Students can take the courses before, after, or alongside AP Computer Science A or AP Computer Science Principles.
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Microsoft Offers Hackers Millions in Zero Day Quest Event

Microsoft unveiled the Zero Day Quest bug bounty event at this week's Microsoft Ignite conference, offering up to $4 million in rewards to security researchers. Zero Day Quest, taking place next year, will serve as an expansion of Microsoft's bug bounty and transparency initiatives under the company's Secure Future Initiative. "At the end of the day, we recognize that when it comes to security, it's fundamentally a team sport," said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
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E-nose Samples Odors 60 Times Per Second

An e-nose developed by researchers at the U.K.'s University of Hertfordshire and colleagues elsewhere can resolve and decode odor fluctuations up to 60 times per second. It also distinguishes between odors by the specific patterns they produce over time when interacting with the e-nose’s sensor. The e-nose is smaller than a credit card, and was built with off-the-shelf components and custom-designed digital interfaces.
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Pope to Make Late Italian Teen the First Digital-Era Saint

Pope Francis said he will canonize Carlo Acutis next April, setting the date for the late teenager to become the Catholic Church’s first millennial, digital-era saint. Acutis was a Web designer who died of leukemia in Italy in 2006 at the age of 15. Francis beatified him in 2020. Touted as the “patron saint of the Internet,” Acutis used his tech talent to create a website to catalog miracles and took care of websites for some local Catholic organizations.
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The Justice Department Wants Google to Sell Chrome

U.S. Justice Department lawyers on Wednesday asked the federal judge overseeing an antitrust case against Google to order the tech giant to sell its Chrome browser. Doing so, the U.S. said, will split the company's browser from its search engine and create more competition in the online search market. Wednesday's court filing follows a ruling in August that Google has preserved the dominance of its search engine by acting as an illegal monopoly.
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China Overtakes Germany in Use of Industrial Robots

China has overtaken Germany in the use of robots in industry, a report by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) revealed. South Korea is the world leader in industrial robot density with 1,012 robots per 10,000 employees, up 5% since 2018, reported the IFR. Singapore comes next, followed by China with 470 robots per 10,000 workers, more than double the density it had in 2019. That compares with 429 per 10,000 employees in Germany, which has had an annual growth rate of 5% since 2018.
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U.S. to Fund Chip Digital-Twins Center

The U.S. plans to provide $285 million in funding to a new semiconductor research center in North Carolina focused on digital twin technology, to be run by industry research consortium Semiconductor Research Corp. The goal is that within five years, the new institute will help speed technology development, reduce greenhouse gases associated with chip manufacturing, and train more than 100,000 students and workers on digital twin technology, according to a U.S. Commerce Department statement.
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Quantum Computers Hit Milestone for Error-Free Calculation

Microsoft and Atom Computing say they have set a new record for the most entangled logical qubits, a step towards the creation of quantum computers that can detect and correct errors. Using a quantum computer constructed from ultracold ytterbium atoms to create 24 logical qubits and link them through quantum entanglement, the companies optimized the way lasers and electromagnetic fields control the atoms and encode information into their quantum states to turn them into qubits.
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