Computing in the News
Tips and Options for Using Computing News in Class
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- Present a current news story about a computing innovation (including a video if there is one), then ask the students what they think about it, what computer science concepts are involved, and what the positive and negative implications are.
- Once you’ve modeled the process several times, you can ask students to bring stories to the group.
- Can be used as a five-minute bellringer every day, or save news for Fridays and give it more time.
- If the discussion is going well, let it continue!
- It can be easy — maybe a little too easy — to highlight the positive elements of a new innovation (especially when news stories are based on press releases!). So it’s important for students to see the negative (often unintended) implications as well — and to put some thought into how potential negative consequences could be prevented or mitigated.
Why Use News?
Highlights from the news make a great attention-grabber at the beginning of class, and provide handy concrete examples for thinking about the global impacts of computing. (In fact, there’s a move to use news in all undergrad CS classes at UC Berkeley!)
Three Ways to Find Computing News
News Stories Curated for CSP by TGI (this page)
2016-17 news highlights that demonstrate computing impacts. Each one lists relevant CSP learning objectives and essential knowledge, along with suggested discussion questions. Scroll article snippets or search by CSP framework tag.
Ongoing TGI “Computing in The News” Forum
Uncurated news spotted by our site users, and comments on our curated news articles. Peruse, or join in and share a story! (Forum RSS feed)
Current Uncurated News from Other Sources
Some of our favorite live news feeds: ACM Tech News, MIT News, Science Daily.
News Stories Curated for CSP by TGI
2016-17 Highlights
(Team TGI: Anna Clark, Tyler Daniell, Michael Morguarge, Nnamdi Onwumere, and Jonathan Corley at University of West Georgia and Julia Bernd at ICSI)
Search our 2016-17 Curated News Stories by CSP Framework Tag
Ongoing TGI “Computing in The News” Forum
Uncurated news spotted by our site users, community contributions, and comments on our curated news articles. Peruse or join in and share a story!
Current Uncurated News from Other Sources
Some of our favorite sources for computing news!
From ACM Tech News
- Youth Robotics Teams from 58 Countries CompeteFIRSTStudent robotics teams from 58 countries competed in the 2024 FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Championship in Houston. The event concluded Saturday with middle and high school robotics teams competing in match finals for the FIRST Robotics Competition and FIRST Tech Challenge international championships. Teams from Israel, Missouri, Arizona, and Pennsylvania […]
- Olympic Organizers Unveil Strategy for Using AI in SportsAssociated PressThe International Olympic Committee on Friday outlined its agenda for using AI in sports, saying the technology could be used to help identify promising athletes, personalize training methods, and make the games fairer by improving judging. Plans also include using AI to protect athletes from online harassment and to help broadcasters improve the viewing […]
- Meta, TikTok, X Invited to Stress-Test DSA Election GuidelinesEuronewsMeta, TikTok, X and other online platforms with more than 45 million EU users have been invited by the European Commission (EC) to stress-test election guidelines to help prepare for EU elections in June. Elections guidelines were published by the EC in March under the Digital Services Act. Participants will work through multiple scenarios that […]
From MIT News
- This tiny chip can safeguard user data while enabling efficient computing on a smartphone April 23, 2024Researchers have developed a security solution for power-hungry AI models that offers protection against two common attacks.Adam Zewe | MIT News
- To build a better AI helper, start by modeling the irrational behavior of humans April 19, 2024A new technique can be used to predict the actions of human or AI agents who behave suboptimally while working toward unknown goals.Adam Zewe | MIT News
- For more open and equitable public discussions on social media, try “meronymity” April 18, 2024A communication system whose users reveal only a few verified aspects of their identity can empower less confident participants to speak up, researchers report.Adam Zewe | MIT News
- A blueprint for making quantum computers easier to program April 16, 2024A CSAIL study highlights why it is so challenging to program a quantum computer to run a quantum algorithm, and offers a conceptual model for a more user-friendly quantum computer.Alex Shipps | MIT CSAIL
From Science Daily
- AI tool creates 'synthetic' images of cells for enhanced microscopy analysis April 22, 2024Researchers have developed a method to use an image generation AI model to create realistic images of single cells, which are then used as 'synthetic data' to train an AI model to better carry out single-cell segmentation.
- 2D materials rotate light polarization April 22, 2024Physicists have shown that ultra-thin two-dimensional materials such as tungsten diselenide can rotate the polarization of visible light by several degrees at certain wavelengths under small magnetic fields suitable for use on chips.
- Compact quantum light processing April 19, 2024An international collaboration of researchers has achieved a significant breakthrough in quantum technology, with the successful demonstration of quantum interference among several single photons using a novel resource-efficient platform. The work represents a notable advancement in optical quantum computing that paves the way for more scalable quantum technologies.