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Microsoft is inviting applications for two-year fellowships from outstanding PhD students. Fellowships will be granted by Microsoft Research at the discretion of Microsoft.

Please review the call from Microsoft . The Fellowship coversfor full details at: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/academic-program/phd-fellowship/

Award amount:

• • Tuition and fees
• Provides a stipend ($42,000) for two years
• An invitation to interview for a salaried internship
• An invitation to the PhD Summit. See "Provisions of the Award" at the first link for more information.

• • will be covered for two academic years (2022–23 and 2023–24).
  • A $42,000 USD stipend will be provided to help with living expenses while in school for two academic years (2022-23 and 2023-24). The stipend is not expected to cover all living expenses; it can be used for expenses including, but not limited to, childcare, conference fees and travel, research equipment, meals, rent, etc.
  • Opportunities will be provided to build relationships with research teams at Microsoft and receive mentorship.
  • NOTE: A recipient of the Microsoft Fellowship may not receive another fellowship from another company or institution during the same academic period. Microsoft will, at its sole discretion, consider a joint fellowship with a government or nonprofit organization.

Eligibility:
Applicants must:

• Be nominated by their departments.
• Attend university in the US or Canada.
• Be in their third year of an eligible PhD program in the fall semester or quarter of

See: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/academic-program/phd-fellowship-program/
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/academic-program/phd-fellowship-program/#faq

• 2021.
• Be conducting doctoral research in one of the following areas: 
  • Algorithms
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Audio & acoustics
  • Computer vision
  • Data platforms and analytics
  • Ecology & environment
  • Economics
  • Graphics & multimedia
  • Hardware & devices
  • Human-computer interaction
  • Human language technologies
  • Mathematics
  • Medical, health & genomics
  • Programming languages & software engineering
  • Quantum computing
  • Search & information retrieval
  • Security, privacy & cryptography
  • Social sciences
  • Systems & networking
  • Technology for emerging markets

Nomination Process (Managed by the Department of Computer Science Coordinator for Constituent Awards, Hannah Gorrie; selections determined by the Graduate Student Awards Committee):

Students must be nominated by their department chairs, and departments may submit up to four nominations (see details on the nomination process here). NOTE: A maximum of four nominations per department will be accepted; if two or three students are nominated, then at least one nominee should help us increase the opportunities for students who identify as part of a community that is underrepresented in the field of computing, and if four are nominated, then at least two nominees should help us increase the opportunities for students who identify as part of a community that is underrepresented in the field of computing. This includes those who self-identify as a woman, African American, Black, Hispanic, Latinx, Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Indigenous Peoples, LGBTQI+, active or veteran service member, and/or person with a disability.

Grad College Fellowship Finder post: https://apps.grad.illinois.edu/fellowship-finder/index.cfm?action=main.fellowship&fid=3883

To APPLY:

Required Materials:

1. CV/resume - a link to your professional website is optional, but strongly recommended
2. Month and year you entered your PhD program and expected graduation date
3. Whether or not the you self-identify with an underrepresented group in computing (women, African-Americans/Blacks, Latinos, American Indians/Alaskan Natives, Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders, people with disabilities and/or LGBTQ)
4. Primary and secondary research areas. Click the "Research Area" tab at the top of this page.
   
5. Thesis proposal or research statement, not to exceed five pages (plus references) and font no smaller than 10-point. According to the new format, it looks like selected students will have until September 20 to make revisions to their proposals (this is after they are reviewed by the department's Student Awards Committee, so you'll still want to make sure you have a solid proposal for the first round of competition).
6. One (1) page summary of the thesis proposal or research statement.
7. Letters of Reference (3). One must be from your primary advisor and only one can be from a current Microsoft employee. Letters should be from established researchers who are familiar your research. The department will need these letters for our internal review and they should be sent to Samantha at shendon@illinois.edu. They will have time to make additional revisions, if they wish, as the final deadline to Microsoft is September 21, 2020.

Materials should be submitted by 11:59PM on 8/6/2020 to Samantha Hendon (2237 SC).

A maximum of three candidates per department may be nominated.

Note: Electronic documents should be submitted as ONE PDF. Letters of recommendation should be sent from the letter writer directly to Samantha.  Students, your file name (includes items 1-6 listed above) should be submitted as "20-21. MSR - Last Name, First Name". I recommend that students submit their CVs and statement(s) to their letter writers at least a week prior to the deadline.

Materials should be submitted to Samantha Hendon, not Microsoft.  However, if chosen as one of the department's nominees, be aware:  "Applications submitted to Microsoft will not be returned. Microsoft cannot assume responsibility for the confidentiality of information in submitted applications. Therefore, applications should not contain information that is confidential, restricted, or sensitive. Microsoft reserves the right to make public information from applications that receive awards, except those portions containing budgetary or personally identifiable information."