Latest News

McGill, News

SUS Council recaps Frosh, plans semester events

by Koji Shiromoto on

More in McGill:

The General Council of the Science Undergraduate Society (SUS) held its first meeting of the semester on Sept. 6. During the meeting, SUS executives reported on their initiatives for first-year students and announced upcoming events, including an Executive Orientation, Grad Fair, and SUS Charity Month. Representatives from science departmental associations were also present; members of the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Arts and Science, and Biochemistry associations made brief statements reporting beginning-of-year updates.

Initiatives for first-years

SUS executive members began the meeting with presentations on several initiatives and resources for first-year Science students, including the First-Year Handbook designed by the SUS. The sixty-page booklet is a comprehensive guide to all parts of life for science students at McGill, with sections on resources and student services at McGill, picking U0 courses, and Montreal. The Handbook is now available for students to pick up for free in the SUS office, located in the basement of Burnside Hall.

“If you have first-year constituents, you can direct them to [the Handbook],” SUS Vice-President (VP) Communications Reem Mandil said. “It has a lot of good information about SUS, the councils, Montreal, and courses.”

Council members also remarked on the success of Science Frosh, which had concluded just two days prior to the meeting.

“The city, the police, and the Dean of Students were really pleased with us, and they emailed us to thank us on our work,” SUS VP Internal Soud Kharusi said. “[It was the] first year that we sold out Science Frosh, so that was really big for us.”

The surplus from Frosh will be added back to the Society’s budget, so it will be capable of organizing more events than expected over the course of this year. ECOuture, a sustainable fashion show run by the Society’s Environment Committee (SUSEC) that was held annually as part of Green Week until its discontinuation after 2016, will be restored.

“We’re projected to make a significant surplus, which we’re planning on investing back into SUS infrastructure, resources, as well as bringing back old events, such as ECOuture,” SUS VP Finance Susan Ding said. 

Grad school initiatives

Other initiatives on the agenda were intended to help graduating students prepare for applying to graduate school. For example, Ellie Joung, SUS VP Academic, announced the completion and release of Redbooks, a website that compiles application requirements for science graduate programs within and outside of Canada.

“Redbooks is a website that has information about grad schools, so you can search grad schools by area or location, or topics and departments,” Joung said.

In addition, Joung announced that school registration for the upcoming Grad Fair has hit its cap of 65 universities. The event, to be held on Nov 2nd in the SSMU Ballroom, is now in the process of recruiting student coordinators.

 

Upcoming events

SUS President Jasmine Leung announced that the SUS Fall General Assembly (GA) will be incorporated into the Society’s first annual Executive Orientation on Sept. 16. All Science undergraduates are eligible to attend the GA to propose and vote on motions. However, the results of these votes are only binding if the quorum of 100 members present is met.

“Hopefully the GA […] hits quorum, and we can bring to the fore exciting things, and also make it a precedent that GAs hit quorum, because we’ve never had one hit quorum in the past,” Leung said.

In addition, the SUS will hold its annual SUS Charity Month in November, with proceeds going to the Children’s Wish Foundation. VP External Michelle Guo announced that the month will include bi-weekly samosa sales, a Halloween party, an apartment crawl, and a concert. Medals will be awarded to the departments that raise the most money.

SUS Council next meets on Sept. 20.

 

 

McGill, News

McGill University stays at 42nd in World University Ranking

by Julia Métraux on

More in McGill:

On Sept. 5, the Times Higher Education (THE) released its 2018 World University Ranking, with McGill University ranked 42nd of 1000 universities globally, the same as its THE 2017 ranking.

THE World University Ranking, like Maclean’s and QS’, uses multiple variables in its methodology to determine its annual ranking. Quality of teaching, research, and citations account for 90 per cent of the ranking’s weight, while international outlook and industry income are worth ten per cent combined. THE collects this information through an independent audit administered by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Provost and Vice-President (Academic) Christopher Manfredi expressed his satisfaction with the ranking but pointed out that it has little real impact on McGill’s priorities like improving the university’s financial situation. In the released budget book for the Fiscal Year 2018, the report states that McGill University has a long term debt of $985.2 million.

“We’re pleased to hold our position despite financial difficulties,” Manfredi said. “The ranking does not affect [grants and other forms of funding] directly. The province does not consider the rankings [when determining funding].”

McGill ranked behind two other major Canadian universities: University of British Columbia (UBC) and University of Toronto (UoT). UBC improved their ranking by six spots from 40th in 2017 to 34th in 2018, while UoT’s ranking moved up slightly from the 24th to the 22nd spot.

In an email to The McGill Tribune, THE reporter Ellie Bothwell wrote about how UBC was able to improve its position.

“[UBC had] an improved score for its industry income, [because UBC] received more industry income per academic staff, a higher proportion of doctorates awarded compared to bachelors awarded, a greater amount of research income and a stronger research influence, [and] more citations,” Bothwell wrote.

Though rankings may have little effect on McGill’s provincial funding, they do affect admissions. Prospective students and their families frequently consider rankings in deciding which universities to apply for, according to McGill Interim Executive Director of Enrolment Services Jocelyne Younan. In an email to theTribune, Younan explained how a higher ranking leads to more students applying, thus lowering the ratio of admitted students.

“When it comes to accepting an offer of admission, many other factors influence [students’] decisions and these will vary greatly,” Younan wrote. “Cost of education and cost of living, location, safety, internships, and exchange opportunities are common factors we hear from students.”

Younan said she finds McGill’s placement on the THE 2018 World University Ranking acceptable.

“Different rankings measure different things, and we are always happy to be ranked highly,” Younan wrote. “The data [is] probably as objective as [it] can be, so, from that standpoint, plus the fact that universities rarely make large moves up or down the scale suggest that the portraits of the different universities are reasonably accurate.”

Though a plethora of factors are calculated in any university ranking system, it’s difficult for any ranking to accurately measure the lived experiences of students. SSMU Vice-President University Affairs Isabelle Oke noted that rankings like THE's encompass solely an outsider’s perspective on the institution.

“I think there is a limit about what you can understand about any given campus, unless you spend a lot of time in the environment,” Oke said. “So when I see these rankings that are quantifiable, but I feel [that] there is a lot about McGill culture that isn’t necessarily represented in that way.”

ABCs of Science, Science & Technology

Everything you wanted to know about hurricanes

by Izze Siemann on

More in ABCs of Science:

Over the past few weeks, hurricane Harvey plummeted into Texas, and record-breaking hurricane Irma plowed through the Caribbean and into the west coast of Florida—with smaller hurricanes Jose and Katia.

Technically, a hurricane is a tropical cyclone. According to NASA, the name “hurricane” is regional, applying only to tropical cyclones that form over the Atlantic Ocean or Eastern Pacific ocean.

“Earlier in the week, Irma sustained 185 mph winds for more than 24 hours, a record length of time for a hurricane in the Atlantic.” Vox reports. “Irma was a Category 5 storm for around 3 days—which is also nearly a record.”

Hurricanes form in equatorial regions where the ocean is heated by the sun, providing energy for the storm; warm air rises from the ocean’s surface to form thunderstorms. Then, upper-level and surface winds blow these clouds into a circular motion, forming a “tropical depression”—a tropical cyclone with wind speeds below 62 kilometres per hour. Once winds inside the storm reach 119 k.p.h., the storm officially becomes a hurricane.

With hurricanes Irma, Jose, and Katia all brewing simultaneously, the storms have attracted global media coverage. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicted this year would bring many hurricanes.

Two large-scale patterns dictate whether or not a given year will host hurricane-inducing conditions: The El Niño/La Niña cycle and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO).

During an El Niño, ocean temperatures tend to be warmer than usual, creating strong winds that usually prevent hurricane formation. The AMO also fluctuates between cool and warm seasons; the former phase is more suitable for hurricanes than the latter. The AMO changes every few decades, and the warm phase has been in play since 1995.

The NOAA notes that this year’s El Niño is “weak or non-existent,” which explains why these three back-to-back hurricanes were likely to occur. Coupled with a suite of other conditions, this hurricane season did not come as a shock to atmospheric scientists and weather specialists.

Furthermore, extensive discussion about the role of climate change on the intensity of these hurricanes has clouded the scientific community.

In a recent article, The Scientific American outlines how climate change has both clear and debatable impacts on these storms. For example, rising global temperatures triggered glacier melt and has lead to a rise in sea levels.

“The seemingly modest 1 foot of sea level rise off the New York City and New Jersey coast made a Sandy-like storm surge of 14 feet far more likely, and led to 25 additional square miles of flooding and several billion extra dollars of damage,” The Scientific American reports, based off the paper “Increased threat of tropical cyclones and coastal flooding to New York City during the anthropogenic era.”

A study published in Nature also emphasizes that hurricanes are getting stronger due to climate change. The most damaging storms ever recorded have all occurred within the past two years. In addition to warmer sea surface temperatures overall—which increases moisture level in the atmosphere and the flooding power of recent hurricanes—raised temperatures result in higher winds, with “roughly eight [metres] per second increase in wind speed per degree Celsius of warming.”

However, climate change cannot be shown to be the direct cause of these storms. The Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory maintains that it is premature to connect human activities or greenhouse gases in the atmosphere directly to hurricane strength and scope. Although climate change is not directly responsible for the hurricane count, it is augmenting the damage they cause.

Editorial, Opinion

The McGill community must confront the fentanyl crisis—or risk fatal consequences

by McGill Tribune Editorial Board on

More in Editorial:

McGill Frosh week just ended. It’s September’s biggest party, and, for many students, a comprehensive introduction to the school’s drinking and drug culture. Healthy McGill, Floor Fellows, and other student leaders encourage first-years to have fun, but be safe—they acknowledge that some young people do drugs, and emphasize harm reduction over lecturing or guilt-tripping, in line with McGill’s programs on student drug use.

As they should. However, this approach needs an update, one that accounts for an increasingly critical source of harm. Fentanyl, a powerful and deadly synthetic opioid, is on the rise in Montreal’s drug scene. Whether a student is a regular drug user, or a just-this-once type, fentanyl is a real and prevalent danger. Even if they don’t use drugs at all, it’s likely they know someone who does.

These are the facts: Fatal opioid overdose linked to fentanyl is a public health crisis in Canada. Both those who struggle with addiction and casual drug-users are unknowingly overdosing on drugs laced with fentanyl, and, far too frequently, they are dying. While Alberta and British Columbia have been hit hardest by recent spikes in fatal overdoses, this is not a provincial epidemic—it is a national one, and it has reached Quebec. Since August 1, there have been 24 confirmed drug overdose cases in Montreal, and 12 deaths linked to overdose. Moreover, a Montreal Public Health surveillance initiative of drug users in the city revealed that many users unknowingly take drugs cut with fentanyl. The agency has declared the situation a public health emergency.

Yet, there has been virtually no conversation on campus about how to best educate and protect students using drugs in this new landscape. This needs to change. In this ongoing epidemic, students and young people are especially at risk, given the way university culture tends to normalize excessive drinking and drug use. The McGill administration, the Students Society of McGill University (SSMU), and students themselves must take proactive steps now—both educational and harm reduction-focused—to address the real threat that fentanyl and similar synthetic opioids present to students and their friends.

Someone overdosing minutes after doing a single line of cocaine used to be the stuff of exaggerated, war-on-drugs propaganda. Now, it’s not such an unlikely reality.

The rapid spread of fentanyl across Canada is in part due to the opioid’s infinitesimal size. Fentanyl is up to 100 times more powerful than morphine, so it only takes an amount equivalent to a single grain of salt to feel the drug’s effects. An amount roughly the size of two grains of salt can be enough to kill a person.

Those grains are mixed with fillers or other street drugs—including popular party drugs like cocaine and MDMA—and sold for spectacular profit, thanks to how little fentanyl is needed to produce a high. Often, that high comes at devastating cost. Between January and July of this year alone, fentanyl was found in 706 fatal overdose victims in British Columbia.

Someone overdosing minutes after doing a single line of cocaine used to be the stuff of exaggerated, war-on-drugs propaganda. Now, it’s not such an unlikely reality. That’s not to say McGill should start a campus-wide crackdown on drug use. Destigmatizing addiction, addressing the mental health challenges that so often correlate with substance abuse, and offering students support rather than judgment should remain utmost priorities, now more than ever. But, it is also imperative that the McGill community update its risk profile of drug use, and adapt harm reduction practices—both proactive and responsive––accordingly.

Other Canadian universities have already taken such steps. The University of British Columbia, the University of Alberta, the University of Calgary, and the University of Manitoba have all started distributing naloxone kits. Naloxone is an antidote drug that blocks the effects of an overdose long enough for a victim to reach a hospital. UBC has also trained campus medical aid teams on administration of the drug. It’s essential that the McGill administration moves to make naloxone freely accessible on campus.

In the meantime, preventative action must be taken through education and raising awareness. The University of Alberta, for example, has distributed informational posters on campus about the dangers of opioids. This is not only the administration’s responsibility. SSMU ought to follow suit, and update its programming on safe partying—particularly its informational resources directed at first-year students—to provide students with the information they need to keep themselves safe, such as where and how to get their own drug testing and naloxone kits.

All the safety precautions in the world won’t make much of a difference if the McGill community doesn’t take this new risk seriously, and start the conversation on campus on how its members can best respond and support each other—now, not later. On this issue, it’s unacceptable for McGill or SSMU to drag their feet. Hindsight isn’t good enough when students are at risk of dying.

Album Reviews, Arts & Entertainment

Album Review: LCD Soundsystem – american dream

by Maxime Scraire on

More in Album Reviews:

“We’re all going to die someday, so you change your mind,” James Murphy responded to a fan’s concerns regarding LCD Soundsystem’s (LCD) 2016 reunion. This type of casual wisdom has defined the frontman’s work ever since the group’s first single “Losing My Edge’s” tongue-in-cheek jabs at hipster culture: “I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.” Still, despite the dance-punk icon’s transparency regarding LCD’s return, the quick change of heart understandably inspires some skepticism regarding the group’s motivations. Only five years after his band’s triumphant Madison Square Garden send-off, the man who had called it quits because “it ha[d] all just gotten bigger than I planned” was back, headlining Coachella on a several million-dollar deal.

From the first synth notes of american dream, the fourth LCD album—and first since their reunion—it is obvious that Murphy has lost neither his ear nor his edge. “oh baby” is a beaming melancholic croon that somehow finds room to breathe as it drowns in synth excess. This dynamic 80’s-post-punk production quickly reveals itself as the album’s sonic through-line, with arrangements ranging from the echoing drums of “how do you sleep?” to the barrage of delayed guitars on “emotional haircut.”

On the lyrical side, highlights including “american dream” and “tonite” are loaded with gems such as “Look what happened when you were dreaming/And then punch yourself in the face,” which Murphy sings with his trademark poignancy and off-the-cuff delivery.

What truly separates this new release from its predecessors, however, is its cohesion. Insistently self-reflexive and obsessed with endings of friendships, love affairs, or lives, american dream sticks to its universal theme and specific sound to create what just might be LCD Soundsystem’s magnum opus.

In some way, maybe Murphy did sell out. But when the music is this good, the truth is, it doesn’t matter. And if your head is still in turmoil two years after the breakup, just put your headphones on and let the man himself remind you how easy it is to “change your mind.” You’ll surrender.

Features

Café Mission Keurig: A day at a coffeehouse for Montreal’s homeless

by Marie Labrosse on

More in Features:

It’s only 9 a.m. on Friday Sept. 8, and the Café Mission Keurig is already buzzing just one hour after opening for the day. The entrance swings open to let in the morning’s patrons and the crisp St-Laurent air. Every weekday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., the café, one of the Old Brewery Mission’s (OBM) support services geared towards the homeless, welcomes close to 150 people. Some enjoy free coffee and take advantage of the internet access to browse YouTube and Facebook, or peruse the news online. Others use the space to rest, oblivious to the comings and goings of visitors, the background garble of the television, and the hum of conversation. The café is so busy that by 10 a.m., the milk and lunchboxes—apple slices and a bagel today—have all run out. Yet, the 8th of the month is not the café’s peak period. Visitors describe a microcosmic environment where, over the course of a month, the clientele’s behaviour mimics the cyclical nature of the seasons. During the first week, when welfare cheques come in, the café’s clientele experiences a period of abundance. They have access to funds to pay for food or cigarettes, and consequently have less need for the café’s free indoor services. As the month progresses and their finances dwindle, they find refuge inside the coffeehouse. By the end of the cycle, the space can become cramped and the visitors boisterous, either out of frustration with the crowd or, in some cases, because they have sold their medication. When a new month dawns, the cycle begins once again. One of the café’s earliest visitors, David, lives at the shelter on the second floor of the OBM’s Webster Pavilion, attached to the café. He visits most days, where he has a coffee and spends some time on the computers to jump-start his mornings. What really keeps him coming back, though, is the sense of community. “He’s been coming here for four years,” David said, pointing out a man to his right. “And he’s been here the same time I have, since 2001,” he said pointing at another gentleman sitting at the table behind him. “You have all these people rallying around you like a family.” Sabrina has been working at the OBM for a month. She works two day shifts and two night shifts per week and occasionally comes in upon special request—all this on top of her schoolwork as a second year student in sexology at UQÀM. Before starting university, she worked at a shelter on the South Shore, which then led her to seek out similar employment from the OBM. Most of her work takes place in the adjacent Webster Pavilion’s housing facilities—making rounds, answering questions, resolving issues, and filling out paperwork. Today is only her second time at the café. “It’s comforting to be able to answer to a basic need and on a larger scale than just the people who sleep here. Anyone can come here,” Sabrina said. “I love intervention and counselling, I find it very nourishing.” Julien (left) and Dominic (right), two café patrons, sit facing one another reading the newspaper and talking softly. Neither is a frequent visitor; today is Julien’s first visit at the café and Dominic doesn’t come very often as it’s not easy for him to travel from Berri-UQÀM, where he spends most of his days. They both have different reasons for coming in: For Julien, it was better than sitting out in the cold; for Dominic, the café is a good place to meet up with friends and have a cup of coffee. John arrived in the early afternoon to drink a cup of coffee after a free barbecue lunch at the Accueil Bonneau, another local facility for the needy. The café is his afternoon stopover on his usual route. “I make a round, this is my coffee shop where I meet my friends,” John said. “I live in [rent-controlled housing], it’s a building for old farts really. But this place… this place has a story. It’s a social club as well as a real humbling experience. It’s not [just] a place, it’s a home, it’s my sanctuary.” For five years, John struggled with addiction and lived in a crack house without a stove to prepare his food. When the building was sealed off due to its degradation, its inhabitants were evicted. John immediately accepted a placement offer at a social housing facility downtown, seeing it as an opportunity for a fresh start. He started using the services offered to the homeless and needy, and found employment through the Accueil Bonneau’s “Miel de Bonneau” program. He credits these institutions and the people who run them with helping him stay active and engaged with the Montreal community. “A wave of really bad shit would hit the streets if it weren’t for places like this,” John said. John describes the café’s mission as critical. He has never lived on the street, but to him one’s living situation doesn’t matter inside the café. “In the end, we’re all coming in here from the sidewalk,” John explained.

Arts & Entertainment, Film and TV

‘Baby Driver’ keeps audiences on their toes

by Ryan Canon on

More in Arts & Entertainment:

Edgar Wright has made a career out of directing stylish comedies with a uniquely vibrant soundtrack, including Shawn of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. This makes Baby Driver —a quirky action-comedy about a getaway driver who blasts music to drown out his tinnitus— the perfect vehicle for his singular approach to filmmaking.

The film centers on titular character Baby (Ansel Elgort), a getaway driver employed by criminal mastermind Doc (Kevin Spacey), who plans to escape his life of crime and run away with love-interest Deborah (Lily James). Baby Driver has the potential to catapult Elgort’s career to new heights. Previously known for his roles in films like The Faults in Our Stars and Divergent, Elgort breaks out of this young adult typecast and nails his performance as the quiet —yet— charming Baby. Equally charming is James as Deborah, a diner waitress who develops a relationship with Baby and dreams of driving West and never looking back. The driving force of the plot is Baby and Deborah’s desire to run away together, and Elgort and James do a convincing job selling their characters’ chemistry.

Though he possesses an impressive set of skills, Baby is an innocent and well-intentioned protagonist who holds strictly by his morals. He stands in stark contrast to the dangerous and unpredictable criminals that surround him, played by Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, Eliza Gonzales, and Jon Bernthal. Early on, it appeared as if each of these secondary characters might lack depth and complexity, as a lot of the acting in the movie is over-the-top. However, after spending some time with the characters, they reveal new depths beyond caricaturist portrayals, rendering them surprisingly enjoyable to watch. Hamm gives a particularly brilliant performance as Buddy, who is one half of a Bonnie and Clyde-esque crime duo alongside Eliza Gonzalez as Darling.

The real star of this movie, however, is director Wright. Throughout his past films he has maintained a particular style which features many quick-cut montages edited in tune with the soundtrack. Given Baby’s need to listen to music at all times, the soundtrack is constant and unrelenting, with many recognizable songs each used in exciting and creative ways— such as the tracking shot set to “Harlem-Shuffle” that sees Baby dancing through city streets on his way to get coffee. Though some may see it as a gimmick, the use of music benefits the film enormously, and elevates the chase sequences in particular. 

Baby Driver is an exciting and inventive action-comedy with a unique style brought to it by Wright. It is a refreshing new take on the genre and one of the better films from Summer 2017.

Student Life

Advice to our younger selves: What we wish we had known

by Jackie Houston, Calvin Trottier-Chi, Nicholas Jasinski, Audrey Carleton, Emma Avery, Marie Labrosse on

More in Student Life:

Jackie Houston, Opinion Editor: Find your balance 

During my first year, there were moments when I was caught between choosing to study and going out with friends–and I often chose the latter. This isn’t a cautionary tale against partying all the time at university; it’s a cautionary tale against doing anything all the time throughout your first year. My poison was Monday nights at Korova. For some of my friends, it was studying themselves into the ground. What we all needed was to strike a balance. Making your first year at university about too much of any one thing cuts you off from the big, wide world of everything else going on at McGill. (Spoiler: There’s a lot going on.)

Marie Labrosse, Features Editor: Adapting can be tough, but you’re tougher

The first year of university is so full of highs that it can be easy to forget that it’s normal to experience lows as well. I distinctly remember one group Skype call in my first semester, during which a friend admitted that they were finding adapting to collegiate life difficult. Everyone agreed that we were enjoying ourselves, but that the adjustment wasn’t quite as easy as we had anticipated. The relief I felt sharing a cathartic cry with friends around the world lifted an enormous burden off my shoulders. Although you may not experience a collective cyber pity party, it’s important to remember that settling into life at university can take time.

Emma Avery, Managing Editor: Find your passion, don’t follow everyone else’s

Although there are endless opportunities to get involved, don’t feel pressured to take certain classes or join particular clubs just because other people are. McGill can be an intensely competitive environment; it can feel like everyone around you is involved in five extracurriculars and studying something rigorous. However, don’t join something just for the sake of being involved. Try out different activities and courses, but do so because you’re genuinely interested–not because your friend is, or because it will look good on your resume. Know that by the end of university, you’ll have found your niche.

Audrey Carleton, Managing Editor: Figure out what “productive” means to you

Throughout my time at McGill, I’ve struggled with this image of productivity that involves locking myself in a library for hours at a time, giving up socializing and self-care to try to finish an unrealistic number of tasks–and then feeling disheartened when I inevitably don’t accomplish everything on my to-do list. I’ve come to realize that productivity doesn’t look the same across the board; the “best” way to study is different for everyone and it takes time to find what’s right for you. Listen to your mind and body when you feel drained and need to take breaks, and forgive yourself if you don’t get as much done as you plan to in one sitting.

Calvin Trottier-Chi, News Editor: Embrace personal growth

Regardless of how far you’ve travelled, coming to McGill is a huge adventure on which to embark. Your first year is a chance to reinvent yourself and push your boundaries. Try to look at each experience as an opportunity to learn more about yourself–the more experiences you have, the more you’ll grow.  Get engaged, join clubs, and enter growth-sparking discussions with everyone you come across–don’t be afraid to branch out. Whatever happens will make for a great story and add to the narrative that is you.

Nicholas Jasinski, Editor-in-Chief: Find what you’re good at and do that

Successfully getting involved in a club or team over the course of your McGill career resembles the shape of a triangle. At first, it’s skinny, only taking up a bit of time and leaving room for plenty of parallel interests and activities. But as you move your way up the ladder and become more deeply involved in those extracurriculars, the triangle widens, taking up more of each week. Take advantage of the time you have in first year to try many things. Then, do what you’re good at, what you find rewarding, and what you see yourself enjoyably investing the most in later on.

Science & Technology

‘Big Brother’ now a tool to study linguistics

by Emma Gillies on

More in Science & Technology:

After moving to a new place, some people’s accents change readily while others stay more or less the same for the rest of their lives. McGill University linguist and Assistant Professor Morgan Sonderegger recently spearheaded a study that explores the science behind accent dynamics.

Some studies on accents have analyzed only one conversation with a subject, while others have spanned years of observation. Sonderegger, however, wanted to explore the relatively unknown realm of medium-term accent dynamics—how accents change over a timescale of months. 

While this is not the first study on the subject, Sonderegger said that it’s “certainly the most detailed.” 

Rather than using a lab setting, Sonderegger executed a “natural experiment.” He likened his research to evolutionary biologists studying birds on an isolated island—where participants  interacted only with each other in a removed, yet natural, setting.       The researchers used the British version of reality TV show Big Brother to examine how people’s speech changed over a three-month period. Big Brother follows a group of contestants who live in a house together and are continuously voted off the show by viewers until a winner is selected. Sonderegger was drawn to the United Kingdom because of the extreme accent diversity in a relatively small geographic area.

“We wanted to look at change in people’s accents over time […] and we realized it’s hard to do this because you have to actually be able to see people do this over time,” said Sonderegger. “This particular TV show was a good opportunity to do this.” 

This specific experiment was time-consuming because it was conducted in a natural setting and involved data from real speech, unlike uniform words and phrases that are analyzed in a lab setting. Focusing on the pronunciation of particular consonants and vowels, the researchers used recently developed software, like FAVE and AutoVOT, to analyze the change in sounds more efficiently. However, it still took more than a thousand hours of work and the help of 10 undergraduate research assistants to transcribe speech and write the programs to analyze the data.

In an isolated setting like Big Brother, where participants interact only with each other for months at a time, their accents were projected to change over the longer term. That wasn’t the case. 

“People don’t actually come to sound like each other over three months,” Sonderegger said, though he noted that a few people with closer relationships did, such as a pair who dated during the show. 

The team also found that “[t]here were big daily fluctuations in the exact way people speak,” according to Sonderegger.

Lastly, they deduced that there is remarkable variability in how accents change over time, and that change is dependent on the person. Like previous studies, it demonstrates the complexity of accent change over time. 

There’s some evidence for more culturally significant vowels being less susceptible to change. For instance, the way that some Brits pronounce “but” is extremely dependent on region and has been that way for a long time.

Overall, the question of why there are “changers” and “non-changers” when it comes to accents can be attributed to differences between people—researchers just don’t really know what those differences are yet. In fact, very little is known about which factors affect pronunciation over time, which is a good foundation for future work in the field.

This research relates to differences in language learning ability and cognition among individuals in general, and the findings fall nicely in between previous ones of short-term and long-term accent dynamics. 

“It ties [past research] together nicely, and that piece has been missing,” Sonderegger said. 

Science & Technology

TeamMTL designs solar house for international competition

by Nadia Boachie on

More in Science & Technology:

Picture a scenario where the household hydro bill gets progressively cheaper, rather than more expensive. TeamMTL, a group of McGill University and Concordia University students and faculty, have collaborated to build a house that produces as much, if not more, energy than it consumes. This energy-efficient home is their entry in a prestigious international competition: The Solar Decathlon China.

This event challenges university students and faculty to design and build a net-zero energy house, with the long term objective of creating sustainable cities that will help reduce pollution and waste in some of the world’s most populated urban settlements. The only Canadian team entering the Decathlon is TeamMTL. 

“[T]he opportunity to work with industry partners in the design and construction of a home that is a model of sustainability and affordability is rare for students, and it is an invaluable learning experience for our team,” said Sophie Jemtrud, communications leader for TeamMTL. 

The competition will take place from July to October 2018 in Dezhou, China, and was revamped this year to cover “innovation, water use and re-use strategies, smart energy use, and market potential” in addition to its old goals, including “cost-effective architectural and engineering design, energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, appliances, and electronics, occupant health and comfort, and communications.”

Team members come from diverse departments, such as architecture, design and computation, arts, engineering, business, management, and dance and theatre. At the end of construction, the Canadian group will transport their residence to China and will compete with groups representing universities from around the world.

This team is tasked with the design and construction of a Deep-Performance Dwelling (DPD). Along with the net-zero and low-carbon design, the DPD takes a culturally-centered approach to city dwelling that is of great historic, social, and functional value. 

TeamMTL is focused on building a sustainable home that contains characteristics and features that suit the urban environment in which it was designed for. The project exhibits blending of different cultural, religious, and philosophical beliefs into a uniquely designed home. Taking inspiration from Montreal’s streets, TeamMTL’s design draws from famous Plateau-style row houses. The team amalgamated Montreal’s urban housing with a style of courtyard housing popular in Shiyan, a city in Northwest China. Traditionally, sustainable homes cater to single families; this row house design allows Canada’s team to economically use the same regulation size, 120 to 200 square meters, to fit more individuals and families.

 “[The residence] is the first of its kind in the history of the Solar Decathlon entries,” said Project Leader Michael Jemtrud, associate professor of Architecture at McGill University and former director of the School of Architecture at McGill. 

Sponsors have provided the bulk of the funding for the project. Recently, Hydro-Québec sponsored TeamMTL, donating $250,000. Eric Fallion, Vice President at Hydro-Québec Distribution, explains that Hydro-Quebec wholeheartedly supports TeamMTL because the team’s project exemplifies global efforts to create a sustainable, decarbonized future. 

Each team that successfully builds a solar house at the competition site will receive at least $100,000. Top finishers will receive significantly more, which will help continue to fund innovative, sustainable, and affordable technologies. 

According to spokesperson Jemtrud, the group currently has about 15 students, but aims to expand—hoping to recruit up to 25 new members. Those who are interested in finding out more about the project and even visiting the house may do so at Concordia’s Loyola campus. 

1 … 648 649 650 651 652 … 1,363

Read the latest issue

Read the latest issue