Skip to main content

Microsoft Ada Lovelace Fellowship Opportunity

The Microsoft Research Ada Lovelace Fellowship aims to increase the pipeline of diverse talent receiving advanced degrees in computing-related fields by providing a research funding opportunity for doctoral students from groups underrepresented in computing (women, African Americans/Blacks, Latinos, American Indians/Alaskan Natives, Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders, people with disabilities and/or LGBTQ). 

The Ada Lovelace Fellowship is a three-year fellowship for PhD students at North American universities who are members of groups underrepresented in computing and pursuing research aligned to the following research:

  • Intelligence: AI / Computer Vision / Graphics & Multimedia / HCI / Human Language Technologies / Search & Information Retrieval
  • Systems: Visualization, Analytics & Platform / Hardware, Devices & Quantum Computing / Programming Languages & Software Engineering / Security, Privacy & Cryptography / Systems & Networking
  • Theory: Algorithms / Mathematics
  • Other Sciences: Ecology & Environment / Economics / Medical, Health & Genomics / Social Sciences / Technology for Emerging Markets

Benefits: 

  • Tuition and fees are covered for three academic years (2019–20, 2020–21, and 2021-22).
  • A $42,000 USD stipend is provided to help with living expenses and conference travel while in school for three academic years (2019–20, 2020–21, and 2021-22).
  • An invitation to interview for one salaried internship in 2019 with leading Microsoft researchers working on cutting-edge projects related to the recipient’s field of study
  • An invitation to the PhD Summit: a two-day workshop in the fall at the Redmond lab where fellows will meet with Microsoft researchers and other top students to share their research

Eligibility: 

  • Students must attend a North American university.
  • The proposed research must be closely related to the research topics carried out by Microsoft Research. We are particularly interested in proposals related to Systems & Networking and AI (including Machine Learning, Computer Vision, and Robotics) as well as interdisciplinary extensions to them.
  • Students must be in their third year of a PhD program in the fall semester or quarter of 2018. The nominating university will be asked to confirm the student’s PhD program start date (month/year).
  • A maximum of three applicants per department, per university, will be accepted.
  • All three applicants must 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).
  • The recipient must remain an active, full-time student in a PhD program during the two consecutive academic years of the award or forfeit the award.

Application Process:

  • Students in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS): Contact your chair or DGS for application procedures & deadlines.
  • Students in all other departments: Email Stephen Hill, Sr. Associate Director, Office of Fellowships at s-hill@northwestern.edu.
  • Campus deadline: Friday, September 28 at 12:00 PM

Categories: Fellowships