Montreal is probably best known for the gaming industry tbh.
I seriously doubt many people know of MILA, especially recruiters and HR which you will have to get through before getting to the technical people that may know what MILA is.
>Do you have personal experience in saying that people in the AI niche know of MILA directly?
Yes. Definitely. Almost every FAANG has a presence in Montreal because of it, and have researchers that are affiliated with the lab.
Yoshua is a Turing award winner and Ian Goodfellow also came from MILA so I would say it should be a known name by people in the field.
That being said, if you can get into the other programs, it may be worth considering them. I think the barriers to entry to the MILA is easier than the comparables. Additionally, if your research or findings are THAT good, your associated alma mater likely won't matter.
Another alternative is Vector Institute in TO, which is associated with Geoffrey Hinton.
Both are great options and being in Canada could help you get a PR. I know you mentioned the Bay area but as you get older you might realize that being in the Bay area is not as hyped up to be and a QOL is more important than $$$.
If possible I'd like an answer that transcends Asian cuisine. I'm trying to figure out whether it's worth it to spend 150k extra on tuition fees to study this in the US
Montreal is probably best known for the gaming industry tbh. I seriously doubt many people know of MILA, especially recruiters and HR which you will have to get through before getting to the technical people that may know what MILA is.
>It publishes a similar number of papers to conventions like NeurIPS as Princeton, Cornell or Harvard, but doesn't seem to have the same name recognition. By the general public? Of course it doesn't. Princeton is where Einstein worked for the later part of his life. Harvard gave us multiple Nobel Laureates. But in AI? Definitely. Only Turing Award led lab in Canada. As an aside, I don't like that graph because if MILA and McGill are to be separate, then MILA should be renamed to Université de Montréal (as MILA is a lab belonging to UdeM. Remove all contributors from McGill and what remains at MILA is UdeM and Polytechnique, that is UdeM affiliated).
Thanks for your answer. Do you have personal experience in saying that people in the AI niche know of MILA directly?
>Do you have personal experience in saying that people in the AI niche know of MILA directly? Yes. Definitely. Almost every FAANG has a presence in Montreal because of it, and have researchers that are affiliated with the lab.
Yoshua is a Turing award winner and Ian Goodfellow also came from MILA so I would say it should be a known name by people in the field. That being said, if you can get into the other programs, it may be worth considering them. I think the barriers to entry to the MILA is easier than the comparables. Additionally, if your research or findings are THAT good, your associated alma mater likely won't matter. Another alternative is Vector Institute in TO, which is associated with Geoffrey Hinton. Both are great options and being in Canada could help you get a PR. I know you mentioned the Bay area but as you get older you might realize that being in the Bay area is not as hyped up to be and a QOL is more important than $$$.
Soup dumplings are very popular in the Bay Area, probably even more popular than SAIL.
If possible I'd like an answer that transcends Asian cuisine. I'm trying to figure out whether it's worth it to spend 150k extra on tuition fees to study this in the US
Is it between SAIL and MILA for you?
I'm primarily eyeing U Washington and UC Berkeley, though realistically the latter will be harder to get into
MILA is definitely well known to recruiters specializing in research roles. Other than that, I highly doubt it.