NVIDIA Graduate Fellowship Program 2024

• Students must have already completed their first year of PhD level studies (at the time of application)
• Students must have majors in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, System Architecture, Electrical Engineering, or a related area
• Students must be engaged in active research as part of their PhD thesis
• Students must be enrolled as a full time active PhD student during the 2024-2025 academic year (9 months) of the award – this means they should not be expecting to graduate sooner than May/June 2025.
• Students must be available to complete a summer internship (which due to COVID-19 may be held remotely) prior to the start of their Fellowship year.
• Students may not be immediate family of a current NVIDIA employee
• Note: The award must be administered through the student’s university; payment will be made to the university, not directly to the student

Evaluation criteria

Proposals Will be Evaluated for:

Student quality

• Letters of recommendation
• Academic performance (GPA) and achievements

Research quality

• Research results to date
• Research proposal for fellowship
• Publication track record

Relevance to NVIDIA

• How your work connects to NVIDIA’s primary research domains
• How your research might influence the design, performance or use of future GPUs

Graduate Fellowship Applications Must Include:

• Research summary/thesis proposal – up to 2 pages, plus bibliography
• Resume/Curriculum Vitae (CV) including contact information
• Professor nomination letters (2 letters minimum (must include one from thesis advisor), up to 3 letters maximum — OK to have nomination letters from non-professors, as long as you have one from your thesis advisor/professor).
• Confirmation of availability for summer internship

Submission Portal: It is the student’s responsibility to ensure that all of these items are submitted prior to the deadline. We are using a Submission Portal in which the student manages their own application. The student must:

• Complete the student profile – start this now; you can go back to the portal repeatedly until you submit the final application
• Complete your application input including research summary thesis proposal and resume (CV)
• Add contacts for the letters of recommendation — an email will automatically be sent on your behalf to each recommender you add — be sure to add your professors/recommenders early in the process! Do not wait until close to the deadline!
• Monitor the status of your recommendation letters in the portal — do not click on the final submission until the recommendation status shows “recommendation uploaded” for each recommendation you are expecting — the professor deadline has been set 1 day prior to the student deadline to allow the student to ensure all documents are received before submitting — the deadline for recommendation letters is 3pm Pacific September 6, 2023.
• Communicate with the recommenders to complete their letter upload on time – it is the student’s responsibility to ensure their letters are received into the system.
• Submit the final application when all items are complete, and prior to the application deadline: 3pm Pacific September 7, 2023.

Notifications of final decisions will be emailed by the end of November

Terms and Conditions

The Graduate Fellowship Award must be used to further your research. The breakdown of the award is between stipend, tuition and health insurance, in that order. The award is an unrestricted gift to be used to further the student’s research over the academic year. We ask that no overhead or indirect costs are charged to the award.

Awards are not transferable to another student. Whether it is OK to combine the NVIDIA fellowship with another fellowship depends on several factors — please contact the NVIDIA Graduate Fellowship for details on this matter. Awards are issued to the university for disbursement, not directly to the student.

Amount of the award cannot exceed stipend, tuition, and health insurance. There may also be university-specific restrictions that pertain.

Applications include permission to use the student’s submission data for evaluation of a potential fellowship award. Applicants may choose to opt-in for an internship evaluation outside of the fellowship (in the event the applicant is not chosen for an award.

If selected for an award, a completed internship at NVIDIA is required before the Fellowship award year can begin. Immediate family of NVIDIA employees cannot participate.

Helpful Hints for the Graduate Fellowship Submission: The Research Proposal

The main component of our application evaluation is your research proposal. Here are a few tips that we suggest:

• What is your vision?
  • Our Fellowship Program is a chance for us to get to know some outstanding candidates for whom NVIDIA might be a rewarding place to launch a research career. Tell us what you envision, not only for your PhD thesis research, but what you hope to do with your research once you graduate.
  • A summer internship* is required as part of the Fellowship. Most of our regular interns don’t fully know what project they will work on until they arrive at NVIDIA; we don’t expect you to have it all mapped out, either, but if you have an idea or a desire for what you would be working on during your 3 to 4 month internship, please share that with us in your proposal.
• What have you done so far?
  • The reason we set the minimum bar for submissions as having completed one year of PhD studies is because we know you need time to achieve some results and accumulate a few publications. We look forward to learning what you have done to date.
• Connect your work to NVIDIA.
  • Help us to understand the innovative ways you are using GPUs, or how your research might influence the design, performance or use of future GPUs.
  • Tell us about the NVIDIA technologies that currently impact your research, and how you are using them.
  • Have you ever interned with NVIDIA before? If so, let us know what you worked on during that time.
  • Are you working in an area outside the mainstream computer science and engineering areas? Help us connect the dots from your research to NVIDIA’s primary research domains.

* Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, internships may be held remotely

Helpful Hints for the Graduate Fellowship Submission: The Recommendation Letter

A heavily-weighted component of the application evaluation is the recommendation letter. It is therefore recommended that the candidate afford it the proper attention and effort; here are a few tips that we suggest:

• Pick your recommenders wisely!
  • Your thesis advisor is required, but beyond that, you should select only people who know you well enough to write a strong recommendation for you. A recommendation from a high-profile researcher who barely knows you, or has not worked with you, does not help your application.
  • Ask each of your recommenders in person/via email before you send the request from the NVIDIA Grad Fellow portal. Ask them also if they have time to write such a letter by the due date. If they are traveling or focused on another deadline, their letter may be hastily composed and not help your cause. It is also generally OK to ask them directly if they feel comfortable writing a strong recommendation letter. If this is someone you only took a class from a few semesters ago, they might not remember you well enough to write you the kind of recommendation you are seeking – give them a chance to tell you. If that is the case, then thank them and move on to asking someone who knows you better.
  • If you are asking a recommender in industry, such as a former boss from a summer internship, you may need to remind them what you’ve been working on since they last worked with you. It always helps if you can stay in somewhat regular touch with such contacts, so that a lot of time doesn’t pass between updates.
• Provide your recommenders with sufficient notice.
  • Your recommenders are busy people and cannot always pull off a last-minute request. Give them at least a 2 week notice if possible.
  • Be sure to send the request from the submission portal early and double-check with them that they received the email from the system – sometimes the email goes into their spam folder, and it’s harder to find when it’s the day before the deadline. Ask them to please confirm receipt of the email within 24 hours of your sending it from the portal.
  • Send them a couple of polite reminders: if you’ve given them 2 weeks, perhaps send a reminder at the one-week mark, and if they still haven’t submitted the letter 3 days prior to the deadline (remember, you can check their letter status on the submission portal), then send them one more reminder.
  • Thank them for their recommendation as soon as you see their letter has been submitted!