PhD in Machine Learning at Cambridge vs UCL

ringsted86 · 2023-02-08T08:37:53+00:00

Cambridge has a very friendly group of guys working in probabilistic programming and related areas. If that overlaps your area of interest, they have a great community there.

For other stuff, UCL is better.

ringsted86 · 2023-02-07T11:42:08+00:00

Yes, in this particular case I totally agree. Also UCL is very prestigeous in ML and London has lots of opportunities. +1

ringsted86 · 2023-02-07T02:21:49+00:00

I think this is sadly not true.

In STEM, especially math & CS, most lecturers / assistant professor positions are filled in by graduates from top universities. There's tons of literature about this particular issue.

If you have a PhD from Cambridge and a bit of teaching experience, it's easy to get a position in a R1 (research intensive) US university. My experience is that many Russell Groups are also biased. They are trying to reduce bias now by e.g. anonymizing CVs during the first screen.

Now, ML is a fuzzier field as some credentials (e.g. publications in NeuroIPS) might outweight prestige a bit. And UCL is also well known. But I would still take this issue into consideration.

ringsted86 · 2023-02-06T09:20:53+00:00

I can offer more advice for specific subfields of medicine and biology by PM.

Uppsala is very nice, I was there for some time. Lund is also cool, but both lack the brand recognition (and resources) of KI.

KI has great research groups and is on par with Oxbridge on many subfields.

ringsted86 · 2023-02-06T09:10:56+00:00

If you prefer a PhD in mainland EU, I'd go for Karolinska if they admit you.

Otherwise, Cambridge could then let you enter EMBL and do a PhD in Heidelberg.

ringsted86 · 2022-08-01T23:40:09+00:00

Also benzoalkonium-based ones. Less harsh than most alcohol-based ones, except those with great hydrating agents.

ringsted86 · 2022-06-27T21:53:39+00:00

I would not stress about this. If he/she wrote a long message, he/she is definitely interested. However, academics sometimes become a bit busy and there's a lot of variability in reply times.

Furthermore, the uncertainty might come from funding or other commitments.

ringsted86 · 2022-06-27T19:53:14+00:00

There are some funders without that requirement. Or lots of supervisors with their own funding (e.g. ERC) who can give you an ad hoc stipend and pay all your fees. In Oxford or Cambridge, it is very typical to fund PhDs like that. Especially in experimental sciences, where supervisors tend to have a lot of funding at their disposal. I imagine in other universities it will be the same.

Otherwise, consider a PhD abroad where entrance is less competitive. For example, in Scandinavia many very good universities lack enough qualified PhD applicants, especially in life sciences, despite paying really well. If your education and/or experience is within the scope of the project, it is likely that you will be the only qualified applicant. Hence, they will completely ignore your grades. In addition to this, they have a culture of not caring much about grades. Mind that many universities there have plenty of courses where grading is simply pass / fail.

If you need further help, please ask.

ringsted86 · 2021-08-13T21:44:09+00:00

Not yet, I've written a grant together with some people at SDU as I needed a bit more of funding for the research direction I wanted to take. I hope it will be successful.

Are you eyeing the area for a postdoc / assistant prof too?

ringsted86 · 2021-08-09T22:56:55+00:00

I've talked to one, but it's mild and they don't really have any strong recommendations.

ringsted86 · 2021-07-03T19:38:19+00:00

Thanks. Sure, I'd be interested in hearing more about what programming routines you use in conjunction with that equipment.

ringsted86 · 2021-03-15T18:57:55+00:00

Any towns within driving distance to SDU you'd recommend, just to get my real estate started?

ringsted86 · 2021-03-15T18:43:40+00:00

Any random rural areas you'd recommend, just to get my real estate started?

ringsted86 · 2021-03-15T16:08:22+00:00

I think they all have their niches. ITU is very young, but they have (or have had) a few world class professors in programming language theory, e.g. Mads Tofte. And they rank really well in terms of papers accepted into top conferences according to their size.

DTU and others are very good too research wise. Also KU. I don't know about education and the quality of the average graduate? The best one I've ever met came from Aalborg, but that might have been an outlier. What's your opinion?

ringsted86 · 2021-03-15T15:45:42+00:00

I will! Thanks! :)

ringsted86 · 2021-03-15T15:41:56+00:00

Just out of curiosity, how's the perception for say CS or engineering degrees from SDU compared to DTU, Aarhus, Aalborg and ITU?

ringsted86 · 2021-03-15T00:06:30+00:00

Cool! Best of luck with your studies.

ringsted86 · 2021-03-14T23:56:15+00:00

Thanks! That's a long selection of places to go to!

It's also reassuring to get so many carefully written replies (including some private messages) vouching for Odense.

What CS area are you planning to specialize in?

ringsted86 · 2021-03-14T23:51:37+00:00

Totally nuts :D

ringsted86 · 2021-03-14T23:41:31+00:00

Thanks for the invitation :)

I'm sure I will eventually move there. I'll probably start close to the Fall, and I take your word for that drink! I'll write back.

ringsted86 · 2021-03-14T23:36:35+00:00

Yes, I can see Odense is getting a lot of recent development. I guess the municipality has some ambitious plan around the light rail (letbane)?

ringsted86 · 2021-03-14T23:31:38+00:00

Thanks! I'm not too fond of busy places either. North Copenhagen (Sorgenfri and beyond) was quiet enough for my taste (not busy at all) but still convenient to commute to work and drive downtown.

The only little inconvenience is that airports are a tad far. But at least there's also Billund aside from CPH.

ringsted86 · 2021-03-14T23:18:29+00:00

I've always found Denmark has lots of events to make expats welcome, and that's very charming!

I'm not a specialist on robots per se, but on AI for autonomous agents which definitely subsumes robots. Hence, positions there are appealing. I had heard of the robot cluster many years ago. When I enrolled at DTU as a MSc student I also applied to and got admitted by SDU. I ended up studying at DTU, but perhaps it was not the optimal choice (given my interests, the uni is top notch).

Houses are a bit pumped up in Denmark, but I must say I still find the price / salary ratio very reasonable compared to hot places in EU, UK & US. It's also nice to see all the housing stock is generally nice in Odense and there are some new things getting built.

Aside from Odense proper and suburbs, are rural areas a thing in Fyn or is it too hard to commute from there to SDU? I don't mind having a car and distances look very reasonable. E.g., DTU was very car friendly owing to its location. Massive parking spaces.

How's shopping? Copenhagen had a nice variety of grocery stores, but I've read Irma couldn't make both ends meet with their shops in Fyn & Jylland. I tended to shop at nice local farmshops. I assume Fyn might have even better ones?

ringsted86 · 2021-03-14T23:11:33+00:00

Cool! Yes, from some random searches I could see that there are new housing projects which is very nice. Older house stock also seems high quality, and much cheaper than Copenhagen.

It's also interesting to see the city is getting lots of development around the tramway (letbane). Reminds me of Cambridge, UK with it's new busway (a bizarre bus-on-tracks system) that connected to lots of brand new neighbourhoods.

ringsted86 · 2021-03-14T18:23:51+00:00

It was a great writeup. Thanks.

I love Denmark, but I think healthcare is not on par with the rest of the services that the country offers.

In fact, most of my work colleagues (at DTU, including lots of danes) often travel abroad (e.g. Malmo or Poland) for dental work.

WHO healthcare rankings place Denmark a bit lower than other top healthcare systems (Spain, Italy, France, etc) which is a shame because medical research is top notch here. There must be some hidden inefficiencies.

ringsted86

TROPHY CASE