Researchers at Harvard University and Australia’s University of Queensland have designed and constructed a quantum computer capable of simulating and calculating the behavior of a molecular quantum system. The two photons that function as qubits in a quantum device are entangled, meaning that their states are linked and consistent over distance, thus augmenting the quantum [...]

Researchers at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) and Leicester University (LU) are using artificial intelligence and satellite data to help manage traffic patterns. The researchers will use information from Leicester’s Star Trak system, which tracks buses and feeds information on their status to passengers via electronic message boards at bus stops, to analyze traffic flow. [...]

The United States, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, and the United Kingdom have agreed to fund projects aimed at developing software for the next generation of supercomputers. The G8 Research Councils of the participating nations recently began offering $13.6 million for projects that support exascale software development. The G8 specifically listed climate change, energy, water, [...]

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) astronomers are using the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC) platform for their MilkyWay@Home project, which has built a volunteer base of computers that are being used to map the Milky Way. Each user participating in the project offers a percentage of their personal computer’s (PC’s) operating power, which is [...]

IBM’s Watson supercomputer can regularly best human contestants in the game Jeopardy, and within a year it will face a Jeopardy public challenge. Among the challenges the machine faces is understanding natural language, ascertaining answers to questions, and calculating the chances that its answer is correct in order to decide whether it should buzz it [...]

Cornell University researchers are developing search engine software that can learn by noticing which links are clicked on in a list of search results, and how searches are reworded when the first results are unsatisfactory. The research will lead to methods that improve search quality, especially on specialized Web sites such as scientific or legal [...]

ACM Queue readers have an opportunity to compete in an online programming competition based on the 2009 ACM International Collegiate Programming Competition (ICPC) Challenge problem. Working under the same rules used for the ACM ICPC Challenge, participants get to code a “player” in C++, C#, or Java, for a game called Capture, and enter it [...]

Researchers from Motorola, BT, and Intel are developing ways to combine social networking technology with TV viewing. The goal is to get as close as possible to physically sharing the viewing experience. “The one huge key is trying to make it not like instant messaging or a PC on your TV, but like it’s sharing [...]

A service-oriented environment for high-level communications between computer systems and smart embedded software components that enables even low-cost devices to cohere into a “web of objects” has been created by the EUREKA ITEA software Cluster SODA project. The technology emphasizes simplicity and ease of implementation as all devices in the web of objects communicate using [...]

U.S. President Obama has announced a $250 million effort to improve science and mathematics instruction in order to help the United States compete with economic rivals. The initiative will prepare more than 10,000 new math and science school teachers and provide on-the-job training for an additional 100,000 teachers over the next five years. The plan [...]