20-21 Microsoft Research PhD Fellowship (Fall 2020)

Department Deadline: 8/6/2020 by 11:59P
External Deadline: 8/14/20

Microsoft Research PhD Fellowship (Fall 2020)

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

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.

Students must be in the third year of an eligible PhD program in the fall semester of 2020. International students (non-U.S. citizens) are eligible.

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

Submission Details (by 8/6/2020 at 11:59P)

Required Materials:

CV/resume - a link to your professional website is optional, but strongly recommended
Month and year you entered your PhD program and expected graduation date
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)
Primary and secondary research areas. Click the "Research Area" tab at the top of this page.
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).
One (1) page summary of the thesis proposal or research statement.
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."