Background

The Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA) Fellowship Program aims to recognize outstanding junior PhD students in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as facilitate and empower the future growth of junior PhD students majoring in Computer Science, Electronic Engineering, Information Science, or Applied Mathematics, who have the potential to become future research leaders.

The program began in 1999, and since then it has attracted around 753 PhD candidates from 48 universities in the Asia-Pacific region. From its inception to 2010, 312 outstanding PhD students have been awarded Microsoft Research Asia Fellowship honors or scholarship.

Mission

•To recognize and award outstanding junior PhD students in the Asia-Pacific region.

•To empower and encourage junior PhD students to realize their potential to become future research leaders.

[Timeline]

[Eligibility]

Conditions of eligibility listed below must apply. Applications not meeting these criteria will not be considered.

•  The candidate has already enrolled as a PhD student by the time of the nomination. Candidate should have already spent time towards a PhD program with duration minimum 6 to a maximum of 18 months;

•  The candidate has no more than two years of research experience before commencing the PhD degree;

•   The candidate must specialize in one of the following fields: Computer Science, Electronic Engineering, Information Science, or Applied Mathematics;

      Areas of interest:

·         Internet Graphics

·         Visual Computing

·         Internet Media

·         Wireless and networking

·         Mobile and Sensing Systems

·         System 

·         Natural language computing

·         Speech

·         Software Analytics

·         Human-computer interaction

·         Theory

·         Machine learning

·         Web Search and Mining

·         Media Computing

·         Hardware Computing 

•         The candidate must be nominated by invited institutions across the Asia-Pacific region with a recommendation from a PhD supervisor and department head. Direct applications will not be accepted from individuals or universities without invitation by MSR Asia;

•         Candidates must be seen by their supervisor to have outstanding potential as a researcher;

•         Previous Microsoft Research Asia Fellows are excluded.