This page shares information and links about opportunities that the Department is aware of regarding external award opportunities for computer science graduate students. These opportunities do not require a departmental review or internal competition–students apply to these opportunities directly.
Note: another excellent resource is the Illinois Graduate College Office of External Fellowships, including their Fellowship Finder tool where you can search the 1,100+ listings to find awards that are right for you.
If you receive an external award, we'd love to hear about it and celebrate your accomplishment – please email: awesome@cs.illinois.edu
| Title (Link) | Institution | Deadline | Who? | Award |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Insight Data Fellowship Program | Insight | 8/31/2020 | Insight offers six distinct Fellowships in a number of different locations. Please select only one program, which best aligns with your career transition goals. Select the location where you intend to live and work full-time after completion of the program. Select the start date that allows you to participate in the program full-time and accept a job offer immediately afterwards. Email questions to info@insightdatascience.com.
| 7 week, full-time training fellowship; Mentorship from leading industry data scientists, data engineers & AI specialists; Join an active community of Insight alumni; Self-directed, project-based learning followed by interviews at top companies; and Tuition-free with need-based scholarships available to help cover living costs |
| NVIDIA Fellowship | NVIDIA | 09/11/2020 | Students must have already completed their first year of Ph.D. level studies. Must have majors in CS, Computer Engineering, System Architecture, Electrical Engineering or a related area. | 1 year, $50K |
| Sandia National Laboratories-Diversity Call | Sandia National Laboratories | 10/01/20 | Sandia National Laboratories’ Research Foundations in Computing and Information Sciences (CIS) and the Nanodevices and Microsystems (NMRF) are interested in funding various projects in multiple disciplines for women in their second or third year of a PhD program who are passionate about research that advances national security. For student interested in exploring funded research collaborations with Sandia, please send a paragraph summary of your thesis project (it does not have to match exactly with a Sandia project – just be related to the specified areas of interest), anticipated graduation date, resume and contact information to acadalli@sandia.gov no later than 10/1/2020. | Opportunities for funding projects, internships, and laboratory visits. |
| Facebook Emerging Scholars Award | 10/2/2020 | The program is open to first or second year full-time PhD students who are currently involved in on-going research in an accredited university in any country | 2 year fellowship; $37,000/year; tuition and fees. Plus up to $5,000 in conference travel support | |
| Facebook Fellowship | 10/2/2020 | The Fellowship Program is open to full-time PhD students (domestic and international) enrolled during the current academic year and studying computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, system architecture, or a related area. | 2 year fellowship; $37,000/year; tuition and fees. | |
| Residential & Graduate Student Fellowships | Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study | 10/5/2020 | For scholars, artists, and scientists pursuing outstanding research in all disciplines — including the arts, engineering, humanities, law, formal, natural, and social sciences — with projects that are creative, innovative, or align with the intellectual orientation of the NDIAS. Projects that integrate questions of value, meaning, or purpose in the analyses are encouraged. | $25,000 to $60,000 fellowship. |
| NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP) | NSF | 10/22/2020 | See the CFP for eligibility details. In general, 1st and 2nd year students are eligible to apply. Graduate students are limited to only one application, submitted either in the first year or in the second year of graduate school. See the call for specifics. | Three years of support, $30K annual stipend, $12,000 tuition allowance. |
| Hertz Foundation Fellowship | Fannie and John Hertz Foundation | 10/23/2020 | U.S. citizens or Permanent Residents. Seniors going into a Ph.D. program at specific institutions and 1st year Ph.D. students. GRE and two sets of official transcripts required. Register to see the application. | Varies. Up to full tuition plus $34,000 stipend per year for five years. |
| Open Phil AI Fellowship | Open Philanthropy | 10/26/2020 | AI and machine learning Ph.D. students. Fellows selected based on their academic excellence, technical knowledge, and interest in increasing the probability of positive outcomes from transformative AI. Fellows have a fairly broad mandate. | $40,000 per year stipend, payment of tuition/fees, $10,000 for travel, equipment, etc. Fellows funded through end of 5th year of PhD, with possibility of renewal for subsequent years. 5th-year applicants will be supported on year-by-year basis. |
| Soros Fellowships for New Americans | Paul & Daisy Soros | 10/29/2020 | A New American (i.e., If born abroad: a green card holder, or naturalized citizen, or attended high school and college in the US. If born in the US: both parents are immigrants). Not yet 31 years old, as of the application date. In your first or second year of graduate student as of the application date. | Two years graduate study in any field. Each award is $45K/year: $25,000 in maintenance grants and up to $20,000 in tuition and fees or 50% of required tuition and fees/year. |
| NRC Research Associates Programs | NRC | 11/01/2020, 02/01/2021, 05/01/2021, 08/01/2021 | This is an umbrella program that primarily exists to help U.S. government labs find postdoctoral researchers. Must have a Ph.D. before beginning tenure. | |
| Association of University Women (AAUW): American Fellowships | AAUW | 11/01/2020 | U.S. citizen or permanent resident, female, final year of Ph.D. program. | $20K award |
| NDSEG Fellowship (apply at this website) | NDSEG | 11/02/2020 | There are four eligibility requirements: U.S. citizenship, discipline match, first or second year grad student, and the ability to accept full benefit. You must meet all four requirements in order to be eligible. See the web page for details. | 3 years, $31K annual stipend, tuition and fees, $1K for health insurance. |
| NASA Space Technology Research Opportunities (NSTGRO) | NASA | 11/05/2020 | US citizens or permanent residents for research that has significant potential to contribute to NASA's goal of creating innovative new space technologies. Two-phase proposal process. | Two or more years of graduate study, up to is $80K/year. |
| Schlumberger Foundation Faculty for the Future | Schlumberger | 11/09/2020 | Be a woman; Be a citizen of a developing country; Wish to pursue a PhD degree or Post-doctoral research in the physical sciences or related disciplines. | $50K/year, renewable through to completion of studies. Renewal grants are subject to performance, self-evaluation, recommendations from supervisors and strong evidence of re-integration plans in the home country. |
| Adobe Research Fellowship | Adobe Research | Application opens 11/12/2020 Deadline TBA | Be registered as a full-time graduate student. Remain an active, full-time student in a PhD program for 2016. Recipients are selected based on their research (creative, impactful, important, and realistic in scope) and how their work would contribute to Adobe, their technical skills (ability to build complex computer programs), and personal skills (problem-solving ability, communication, leadership, organizational skills, ability to work in teams). | $10,000 award, Creative Cloud subscription, internship opportunity. |
| GEM Graduate Fellowship | GEM: The National Gem Consortium | 11/13/2020 | Must be (1) underrepresented minority, (2) U.S. citizen or U.S. permanent resident at time of application, (3) Ph.D. student. | |
| AAUW International Fellowships | AAUW | 11/15/2020 | The program provides support for one year of graduate or postgraduate study in the United States to women who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents. (Women holding dual citizenship in the U.S. and another country are not eligible.) | Masters/Professional Fellowship: $18,000; Doctoral Fellowship: $20,000; Postdoctoral Fellowship: $30,000. |
| Croucher Foundation Scholarships for Doctoral Study | Croucher Foundation | 11/16/2020 | Permanent resident of Hong Kong, first class honors in their first degree (or MPhil degree), in the first three years of doctoral study. | Tuition, fees, and stipend, other fringe benefits. |
| SCGSR Program | SCGSR | 11/16/2020 | U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Must be working in one of the priority areas. See the web page for more details. | Awards to conduct part of your Ph.D. research at a participating DOE lab. |
Beckman Institute, UIUC | 11/23/2020 | Recipients of the fellows awards are expected to have a recent Ph.D. (received no earlier than December 2014) in an area of research relevant to Beckman Institute research and to be involved in interdisciplinary studies related to one of the Beckman Institute's research themes. | Fellows will be appointed for up to three years, beginning as early as July of their application year, and no later than December 31. Fellows receive $54,000 annually, plus benefits and a $25,000 research budget. | |
| Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship | Qualcomm | 12/01/2020 | Teams of two (2) Ph.D. students from a small list of select universities submit innovative research ideas. See the web page for the list of specific topic areas. Both team members must be enrolled in the PhD program. | $100K to each team. |
| SMART Scholarship | SMART | 12/03/2020 | A U.S. citizen, grad student in CS or ECE (among others). | Full tuition, stipend $25K-$38K, paid summer internships, health insurance allowance up to $1,200/year, book allowance of $1K/year, mentoring, employment placement after graduation. |
| Symantec Graduate Fellowship | Symantec | 12/04/2020 | Ph.D students doing research in security, storage, systems, machine learning, and data mining. Preference given to students interested in working in an industrial research lab. | 1 year, $20K tuition, salaried internship with Symantec. |
Google Women Techmakers Scholarship (was Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship) | 12/05/2020 | Be a female student entering her senior year of undergraduate study or be enrolled in a graduate program at a university in the United States. Be enrolled in Computer Science or Computer Engineering Program. | $10K, invitation to Google Scholars Retreat. | |
| Ford Foundation Fellowships | National Academies | 12/10/2020 | Limited to (1) All citizens or nationals of the United States regardless of race, national origin, religion, gender, age, disability, or sexual orientation, (2) Individuals with evidence of superior academic achievement (such as grade point average, class rank, honors or other designations), (3) Individuals committed to a career in teaching and research at the college or university level. | Three years @ $24K/year (predoctoral) or 1 year @ $25K/year (dissertation). |
| NPSC Graduate Fellowship | Stem Fellowships | 12/15/2020 | U.S. citizens doing Ph.D research. | Tuition, fees, and stipend. Initially 2-3 years, renewable to 6 years. |
| Born Seekers Fellowship | Born Seekers | 12/15/2020 | Women in STEM ages 18+, must be US citizens or permanent residents. Application is a 3 minute video. | $20K. |
| HRT AI Labs (HAIL) Fellowship | HRT | 12/21/2020 | Ph.D. students in AI, in years 2-4. | $15K towards Ph.D., summer internship at HRT AI Labs. |
| DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (CSGF) | DOE CSGF | 01/09/2020 | U.S. citizens or permanent residents, first year PhD students only. | 4 years (renewed each year), $36K yearly stipend, all tuition and fees, health insurance, yearly conferences, 12-week research practicum. |
Link Foundation Advanced Simulation and Training Fellowships | 01/15/2021 | Full time Ph.D. candidates. Preference will be shown to proposals dealing directly with simulation and training and which explore ideas not yet fully tested. | $28,500 grant for academic year and summer stipend. | |
| UC Berkeley | 02/01/2021 | The School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley seeks applications for multiple postdoctoral scholars in the area of data science at 100% time, to help conduct research, teach in, build, and be an integral part of our web-based Master of Information and Data Science program. | Salaries in the range of $60K-$65K. | |
| Fellowship Program | Aspen Tech Policy Hub | Application opens early 2021 | Applicants should have significant professional experience with technology, show potential to apply their tech experience to affecting policy and social change, and have not yet significantly explored their potential to enact change through policy. Other requirements include: Being at least 21 years old by the start of program, fluency in English, and being able to commit to the full-time incubator process for June 2021-August 2021 in the Bay Area. | Fellows will be paid a stipend of $18,000 to defray their living costs in the Bay Area for the program. |
| Microsoft Research Dissertation Grant Program | Microsoft | 04/07/2020 | Full-time Ph.D students in their 4th year (or beyond) from under-represented groups (women, African-American/Black, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and/or people with disabilities). Open to students studying computing topics. Apply directly to MSR. | $20K grant to support dissertation research, participation in a 2 day career workshop at Microsoft Research Redmond in the fall. |
We will update the page as we become award of new opportunities.
If you have a listing you'd like us to add, or have questions about this page, please email Michelle Wellens.