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Last Friday's edition of The Globe and Mail newspaper included a story on how predictive analytics might help decrease university drop-out rates. Several Data Science companies, including  IBM’s Watson Analytics and Microsoft, are offering universities their expertise on identifying students at risk of dropping out. Of course, having low marks is a good predictor, but it is not the only one. Women, for example, are less likely than men to leave university before finishing their studies, but when they do, their marks are usually quite good. So why are they dropping out?

Paul Laurendeau (BSc[Arch] ’89, BArch ’91) is a 2016 recipient of the Governor’s General Award in Architecture, presented on 20 September 2016 in a ceremony at Rideau Hall.  Laurendeau was the lead design architect on the Amphithéâtre Cogeco in Trois-Rivières, in consortium with François R. Beauchesne.

On May 24-25, 2016, experts from the field of green (sustainable) chemistry gathered in Washington, DC, for a workshop on Sustainable Chemistry Technologies. The event was organized by the National Academy of Science’s Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology at the request of the United States General Accountability Office.

Four years of innovative projects and collaborative action planning have upgraded McGill’s rating in sustainability to Gold in the newest version of the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS).

Among other achievements, the increasing integration of sustainability in curriculum, research, dining services, and purchasing helped McGill achieve Gold. The last time McGill reported to STARS, a self-reported assessment tool developed by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), in 2012, it earned a silver rating.