/newsroom/taxonomy/term/11386/all en /newsroom/channels/news/cutting-edge-technology-detects-nanoplastics-water-instantly-357890 <p>A McGill-led research team has developed the first real-time, on-site technology capable of detecting and deciphering nanoplastics from all other particles in water, a capacity akin to being able to find a needle in a haystack within milliseconds.</p> <p>Microplastic pieces are between 1 micrometre and 5 millimetres, roughly equivalent to a grain of rice. Nanoplastics are far tinier - a single nanometre is just 0.000001 millimetres. For comparison, a human hair is approximately 80,000–100,000 nanometers wide.</p> Thu, 04 Jul 2024 17:50:18 +0000 frederique.mazerolle@mcgill.ca 310812 at /newsroom /newsroom/blake-richards Tue, 30 Jan 2024 20:06:12 +0000 lawrence.chiang@mail.mcgill.ca 307663 at /newsroom /newsroom/thomas-nguyen Sat, 20 Jan 2024 22:17:28 +0000 lawrence.chiang@mail.mcgill.ca 307612 at /newsroom /newsroom/channels/news/expert-myths-and-preconceptions-privacy-age-ai-353454 <p>Protecting people from their personal information being used against them is more important every day as our lives become increasingly interconnected through data-driven products and services. In his new book, Ignacio Cofone challenges us to reevaluate conventional wisdom about data, showing how many of the rules that govern the information economy are outdated in today’s social and economic reality.  </p> <p><!-- x-tinymce/html -->Here is an expert from McGill University who can provide comment on this topic:</p> Mon, 11 Dec 2023 18:04:30 +0000 claire.loewen@mcgill.ca 307522 at /newsroom /newsroom/channels/news/joint-chair-aims-leverage-ai-and-iot-improve-animal-welfare-canadian-dairy-farms-347864 <p>McGill University and the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) announced today the creation of the Research and Innovation Chair in Animal Welfare and Artificial Intelligence (WELL-E). The five-year, $5 million Chair will carry out a major research project funded by a grant from NSERC Alliance and PROMPT, fiduciary of the Ministry of Economy, Innovation and Energy. Important contributions have also been made by industrial partners Novalait, Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC), Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO), Les Producteurs de Lait du Québec (PLQ), and Lactanet.</p> Wed, 19 Apr 2023 19:09:52 +0000 katherine.gombay@mcgill.ca 298500 at /newsroom /newsroom/channels/news/what-ai-generated-covid-news-tells-us-journalists-dont-344060 <p>AI can help identify biases in news reporting that we wouldn't otherwise see. Researchers from McGill University got a computer program to generate news coverage of COVID-19 using headlines from CBC articles as prompts. They then compared the simulated news coverage to the actual reporting at the time and found that CBC coverage was less focused on the medical emergency and more positively focused on personalities and geo-politics.</p> Mon, 05 Dec 2022 21:03:51 +0000 shirley.cardenas@mcgill.ca 288558 at /newsroom /newsroom/channels/news/seawater-memory-keeper-energy-source-and-pollution-tracking-342845 <h6><img alt="Sampling seawater just below the surface of a seagrass bed in Quatsino Sound, British Columbia" src="/newsroom/files/newsroom/channels/image/seawater-bottled.png" style="width:60%" /><br /> <i>Sampling seawater just below the surface of a seagrass bed in Quatsino Sound, British Columbia. Credit: Mike McDermid</i></h6> <h2>What can a bottle of seawater tell you about the fish living below?</h2> Mon, 17 Oct 2022 17:58:01 +0000 shirley.cardenas@mcgill.ca 288427 at /newsroom /newsroom/channels/news/ai-can-learn-patterns-human-language-342712 <p>Human languages are notoriously complex, and linguists have long thought it would be impossible to teach a machine how to analyze speech sounds and word structures in the way humans do. But researchers from McGill University, MIT, and Cornell University have taken a step in this direction. They have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system that can learn the rules and patterns of human languages on its own.</p> Fri, 07 Oct 2022 20:33:32 +0000 shirley.cardenas@mcgill.ca 288415 at /newsroom /newsroom/matissa-hollister Mon, 31 Jan 2022 21:12:17 +0000 frederique.mazerolle@mcgill.ca 285521 at /newsroom /newsroom/channels/news/uncovering-relationship-between-lifestyle-personality-and-brain-structure-332435 <p>Danilo Bzdok, a researcher at The Neuro, McGill’s Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute, uses machine learning to identify patterns in human neurological and psychological data. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-021-02206-x">One of his team’s recent studies</a> analyzed personality profiles, demographic status and social lifestyle from a cohort of 40,000 <a href="https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/">UK Biobank</a> middle aged participants. Their research focused on how these factors are related to each other and to brain structure.</p> Tue, 17 Aug 2021 21:50:04 +0000 shirley.cardenas@mcgill.ca 272691 at /newsroom /newsroom/david-rolnick Fri, 13 Aug 2021 20:03:36 +0000 shirley.cardenas@mcgill.ca 272308 at /newsroom /newsroom/channels/news/using-ai-predict-suicidal-behaviours-students-332119 <p>How can we predict suicide risk in students, especially at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected many people’s mental health? According to researchers from Montreal and France, self-esteem represents an important predictive marker of suicidal risk. The team from McGill University, University of Montreal, Inserm, and Université de Bordeaux is using artificial intelligence to identify factors that accurately predict suicidal behavior in students.</p> Tue, 27 Jul 2021 15:23:08 +0000 shirley.cardenas@mcgill.ca 271027 at /newsroom /newsroom/channels/news/using-artificial-intelligence-manage-extreme-weather-events-327770 <p>Can combining deep learning (DL)— a subfield of artificial intelligence— with social network analysis (SNA), make social media contributions about extreme weather events a useful tool for crisis managers, first responders and government scientists? An interdisciplinary team of McGill researchers has brought these tools to the forefront in an effort to understand and manage extreme weather events.</p> Mon, 18 Jan 2021 14:17:59 +0000 frederique.mazerolle@mcgill.ca 256259 at /newsroom /newsroom/samira-abbasgholizadeh-rahimi Thu, 17 Dec 2020 20:28:42 +0000 frederique.mazerolle@mcgill.ca 253662 at /newsroom /newsroom/ignacio-cofone Tue, 15 Dec 2020 19:03:43 +0000 frederique.mazerolle@mcgill.ca 253333 at /newsroom