The Future of Work (and Engineering) in an Automated World By Nick Brunt While dreaming up the future of humanity’s relationship with technology in the 1940s, influential science fiction writer Isaac Asimov imagined the famous “Three Laws of Robotics”, a comprehensive set of rules designed to prevent any possible conflict between man and his ever-advancing…
Students compete in McGill Engineering Competition
By Nick Brunt The 17th annual McGill Engineering Competition (MEC) was held the weekend of November 4-6 in the Lorne M. Trottier Building. This year’s edition of the interdisciplinary engineering event saw 122 students competing in seven categories over the course of the weekend, each with its own rules and guidelines designed to test…
Remembrance Day 2016
By Nick Brunt The morning of November 11, 1918 began like any other in the trenches of the Great War. Their long lines of sandbags and barbed wire, cut like wounds at the edges of the bare, earthen battlefields of Europe, lay quiet save for the distant sound of firing artillery. The previous four…
The Marvellous Belgian Beer Pipeline
By Nick Brunt Considering the international attention directed towards it in the past few months, the entrance of Bruges’ Halve Maan (Half Moon) Brewery is inconspicuous enough. Situated on a leafy square in the south of the city’s medieval centre, the only outward sign of its location is hardly imposing: only a modest placard marks…
Concrete Canoes Coming to McGill
This spring, McGill University has the distinction of hosting the alliteratively-named Canadian National Concrete Canoe Competition (CNCCC). This prestigious annual event brings together students from all over the country, from civil engineers in training to those simply interested in concrete as a building material. From May 13-15, these competitors will converge on Montreal to put…
Montreal, Hockey, and the Ice Rink: A Brief History
While walking the snowy streets of Montreal, it’s easy to see how far our national winter sport has come. You might pass the ragged outdoor rinks of Parc Jeanne-Mance or McGill’s lower field on the way to class, and later the very same day walk by the gigantic likeness of Carey Price plastered on the…
Why November is the Best Month
by Nick Brunt November is the month everybody loves to hate. According to its many detractors, November has no identity, no real holidays, and simply serves as a buffer between the more charismatic and noteworthy months of Halloween and Christmas. However, in my opinion, these people are objectively wrong. By delving deeper into this disparaged…
Remembrance Day
by Nick Brunt The morning of November 11, 1918 began like any other in the trenches of the Great War. The long lines of sandbags and barbed wire, cut like wounds at the edges of the bare, earthen battlefields of Europe, lay quiet save for the distant sound of firing artillery. The previous four years,…
Montreal’s Taxi Wars
by Nick Brunt On September 15th, hundreds of Montreal taxi drivers and owners participated in a coordinated protest against Uber, the increasingly popular smartphone-based rideshare service. Frustrated by the provincial government’s failure to take a stand against their upstart competitors, the protesters drove slowly as a convoy to the Trudeau Airport after gathering at the…