
A model to simulate how ideas move from one academic institution to another - ibhosszu
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/in-science-some-ideas-are-more-contagious-than-others/
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gcommer
The actual scientific article:
[https://epjdatascience.springeropen.com/articles/10.1140/epj...](https://epjdatascience.springeropen.com/articles/10.1140/epjds/s13688-018-0166-4)
(has a pdf link)

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jackcosgrove
I am curious as to the esteem that the "Canadian mafia" institutions in deep
learning were held in before they made their splash. I know UToronto is a
premier Canadian university, but I always considered Waterloo the premier
Canadian technical university, and neither has the esteem of the big four CS
programs in the US. Which is to say that modern deep learning is a (happy)
story of something coming out of left field. Maybe the relative isolation of
UToronto in CS circles allowed more of a tinkerer mindset that enabled those
researchers to survive the AI winter.

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ivan_ah
I don't think UToronto counts as "isolated" or "left field" by any means. It's
definitely mainstream and current.

The success of the "Canadian mafia" might be better attributed to NSERC (the
Canadian version of the NSF) cash-flowing research in the field for decades.

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jackcosgrove
I did not know about NSERC funding deep learning, thanks for mentioning that.

Maybe "relatively isolated" was the wrong term. I meant to convey that deep
learning advances didn't come from where you would expect, the
MIT/Cal/Stanford places. Which is a good thing in that sometimes the usual
suspects get stuck in a local minimum doing the same things and thinking the
same way. And someone going off in a different direction, for whatever reason,
can pop out of the local minimum and arrive at a better place.

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crimsonalucard
Well of course. In society as well. It's called going viral.

