George Cantwell

George Cantwell

@gcant.bsky.social

Neural network interested in statistics, physics, and computing. Mostly network science. Asst prof @ Cambridge

655 Followers 301 Following 45 Posts Joined Nov 2024
3 months ago

I think they get a placebo

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3 months ago

In triple blind the editors also don’t know. But I’m pretty sure I’ve even had quadruple blind: the reviews don’t know which paper they belong to

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3 months ago

I think maybe the same, but is British sarcasm/irony can be both subtle and frequent...

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3 months ago

Can't get over the fact that in the ML literature the act of *sampling* from an inferred model is now called “inference.”

We really are in the worst timeline.

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3 months ago

We are looking for a PhD student to work with us on network science methods for biomedicine. The student can be enrolled in any graduate program. #NetworkMedicine #ComplexSystems.

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3 months ago
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The perplexing “connected cluster axiom” – Inverse Complexity Lab Research group on inverse problems in complex systems and network science.

I wrote a blog post about the often stated but never explained assumption that communities in graphs should always be connected.

This is inconsistent with statistical significance and null models that underlie the most widely employed methods.

skewed.de/lab/posts/co...

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3 months ago

Maybe a partial answer to your question of where this idea comes from: a network is sometimes *defined* to be the largest component, e.g., the internet is the largest component of connected computers. In those cases specifically it could be sensible starting point.

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3 months ago
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Embedding networks with the random walk first return time distribution We propose the first return time distribution (FRTD) of a random walk as an interpretable and mathematically grounded node embedding. The FRTD assigns a probability mass function to each node, allowin...

A principled graph embedding that also appears to work well in practice: arxiv.org/abs/2512.02694

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3 months ago
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Multilayer network science: theory, methods, and applications Multilayer network science has emerged as a central framework for analysing interconnected and interdependent complex systems. Its relevance has grown substantially with the increasing availability of...

Our review on multilayer network science is out on the arXiv. Thanks to all collaborators of the AccelNet MultiNet project, great working with you all 🙏 @alexvespi.bsky.social @ymoreno.bsky.social @lordgrilo.bsky.social @anduviera.bsky.social @baronca.bsky.social
arxiv.org/abs/2511.23371

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3 months ago

Whoever created OpenReview looked at online anonymous forums and thought "yes, this is the platform to foster productive debate"

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4 months ago

Ah yes, Ramanujan's famous proof that pi^2 is rational

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4 months ago

Very good post. I very much agree with the overall position.

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4 months ago

I suspect saying if an array is "really" a vector, or a linear transform, or a photo, or a graph, or ..., is up to us as humans

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4 months ago

Do you mean like: you have a (d x n) data matrix, hidden representations are, e.g., (4d x n), and the final output is say (2 x n). If so, isn't this the prototypical use case?

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5 months ago
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Excited to introduce Vibes from Meta. Eat your slop, piggies!

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5 months ago

Message passing for epidemiological interventions on networks with loops
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.21596

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5 months ago
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Our fall seminar series begins this Thursday, Oct. 2 (4pm UTC+1/11am EDT) with a talk by Elena Candellone. She’ll be speaking about “Mapping extreme users through negative ties in online social interactions”, followed by a discussion on “the joy of planning scientific events”.

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5 months ago
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Robustness of 'small' networks Modeling how networks change under structural perturbations can yield foundational insights into network robustness, which is critical in many real-world applications. The largest connected component ...

arXiv alert! 📄🚨
Robustness of small networks
arxiv.org/abs/2509.23670
Great to dust off one of my favorite topics and get to collaborate with the legendary
@aliceschwarze.bsky.social and Peter Mucha

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5 months ago
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Graduate Program * Complexity Science Hub Courses are offered both by CSH and by our partner universities, one of which will serve as the degree-granting entity. Students will be guided to the

#SpreadtheWord
We are looking for #PhD candidates passionate about using large-scale data analysis, quantitative models, and complexity science to study the complex interactions within #epidemiology, #OneHealth, and #publichealthsystems.
More info: csh.ac.at/education/gr...

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5 months ago

The Probabilistic Systems, Information, and Inference group at the University of Cambridge is seeking applicants for funded PhD positions.

Anyone who wants to study networks/complex systems/statistical physics/inference can email me at gtc31@cam.ac.uk

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5 months ago

Right, we solved directly for the stationary state, but one could also integrate for the transient. I'll look into it... thanks!

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5 months ago

Oh, you have some nice calculations for the cluster expansion! But I think this reinfection counting has the same equilibrium prediction as the regular pair-approx

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5 months ago
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The threshold and quasi-stationary distribution for the SIS model on networks We study the Susceptible-Infectious-Susceptible (SIS) model on arbitrary networks. The well-established pair approximation treats neighboring pairs of nodes exactly while making a mean field approxima...

We found a nice way to accurately solve the SIS model. Rather than expanding in space with ever larger moment closures (pairs, triples, ...), we expand in time. No more difficult than pair-approximations yet much more accurate.
arxiv.org/abs/2509.11706

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6 months ago

Strong emergence

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6 months ago
Johns Hopkins University, Physics and Astronomy Job #AJO30496, Postdoctoral Fellow in Foundations of Physics, Complexity, and Emergence, Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, US

Postdoc job! I expect to have an opening at Johns Hopkins for a postdoctoral researcher working somewhere in the broad realms of physics, philosophy, and complexity. Apply at Academic Jobs Online:

academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30496

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7 months ago

Not sure how many scientists here have tried Claude Code or similar command line coding assistants. I had a complicated family property tax problem that was best solved by a brute force Monte Carlo simulation approach, so I spent a few days coding up and analyzing a model with Claude Code.

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7 months ago
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Applications are open for SFI's 2026 Complexity Postdoctoral Fellowships

If you’ve recently earned a Ph.D. in any scientific field and want to pursue independent, transdisciplinary research, consider applying.

Deadline: October 1, 2025
Apply here: santafe.edu/sfifellowship

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7 months ago
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beautiful location for statphys

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8 months ago
YouTube
Eric De Giuli: Noise equals endogenous control YouTube video by Biocontrol Seminars

My talk from
@bioctrl.bsky.social
about the physical origin of agency is uploaded here:
youtube.com/watch?v=YY21...
TLDR: noise equals control. Nature is constantly sampling control trajectories via noise

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8 months ago
sign for "Probabilistic Systems, Information and Inference lab"

New group name! We are now the "probabilistic systems, information and inference" aka Ψ²

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