Qualcomm R&D Centers
Innovation Fellowship 2010
Applications Deadline: April 5, 2010
We believe that research and development is the key to harnessing the power of imagination and to discovering new possibilities. We are excited to announce a new kind of fellowship that promotes Qualcomm’s core values of innovation, execution and teamwork. Our goal is to enable students to pursue their futuristic innovative ideas.
Qualcomm is inviting applications for the Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship 2010 from outstanding PhD students in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science departments at Stanford University, UC Berkeley (UCB), UC Los Angles (UCLA), UC San Diego (UCSD), and University of Southern California (USC). We will be awarding fellowships to FIVE winning teams for the 2010-11 academic year. Teams are limited to two students.
Each of the five winning teams will be awarded a $100,000 fellowship for submitting the most innovative proposals. The respective academic departments at each university will administer funds to the winning students for their fellowship work and research expenses for the academic year of 2010-11. Total funding for five teams x two students x $50,000 each = $500,000.
Applications proposing ideas in all traditional areas of computer science, computer architecture, networking, and wireless communications are welcome. The following shows a set of focus areas for this year, but outstanding proposals in other areas will be considered as well:
- Snapdragon Applications
- Context Aware Computing and User Experience
- Low Power and Power Efficiency
- Multi-core and Parallel Computing
- Machine learning and Neuromorphic Computing
- Augmented Reality and Positioning
- Advances in Communication and Networking
- Advances in MEMS and RF Technologies
Timeline
- Official Announcement of QInF 2010: Early February, 2010
- Application submission opens on Monday, March 21, 2010
- Application deadline is Monday, April 5, 2010
- Finalists will be announced on Monday, April 26, 2010
- Finalists presentation for Northern California universities on Tuesday, May 4, 2010
- Finalists presentation for Southern California universities on Friday, May 7, 2010
- Winners Announcement on Thursday, May 13, 2010
Application Process
The main judging criteria is an innovation proposal that must include:
- Introduction and problem definition
- Innovation prposal and relation to the state of the art
- The one year horizon of the project (even if the proposal is a multi-year project)
- The strength of the team for achieving the proposal milestones.
See FAQ for more details.
Winners will be selected through a two phase application process:
1. Finalists selection: applications must be submitted online by the deadline above. Each application must include (in PDF or Word format):
- Three page proposal summarizing your innovative idea
- Letter from one or more faculties recommending the innovation
- Each student’s CV
2. Winners selection: finalist must prepare a 20 minute presentations for the judges. Presentation must be in PowerPoint or PDF format. The presentation generally includes:
- The idea
- The differentiating factors from state of the art
- The execution plan / strength of the team
You can read the official rules of the fellowship here
Please check back to this page regularly for application and program updates.
Submission for QInF 2010 is now closed
Faculty & Mentor
In addition to the faculty advisor(s) to guide the fellowship research, Qualcomm will also provide industry experts to mentor the teams, as well as regular collaboration opportunities with Qualcomm Research & Development to further assist with projects. Successful projects will be reevaluated after one year for further research funding from Qualcomm.
More Info?
More Info?
Please send your questions to innovation.fellowship@qualcomm.com
We thank all the students and faculty who participated in this year's competition. We had 80 great proposals from the five schools. We very much enjoyed reviewing the excellent proposals, and will soon announce the finalists.
Finalist Instructions
Congratulations to all the finalists. We look forward to your presentations during the TWO finals.
Here are a few instructions to ensure smooth logistics in the finals.
- Keep checking this page frequently, for any last-minute updates (especially bus pickup information at the bottom of the page)
- The Final Presentations WILL be a major part of the winner selection.
- The QInF 2010 winners will be selected by a panel of judges consisting of Corporate R&D Vice Presidents.
- Recommenders are highly encouraged to attend the events. We learn a lot about the proposal and planned research by talking to the involved people, and the recommenders can certainly help in this regard.
-
Prepare a
15 minute
presentation. Practice to ensure that you finish with 2 minutes left for some quick questions. -
You must submit your presentation in PDF form by
Sunday May 2, 11:30pm
.- This will allow us to print ‘evaluation books’ for the judges, before the finals
- If you prefer PowerPoint for presentation, please submit BOTH PDF and PowerPoint files.
- 12-slides max, including the cover page showing all the proposal info shown in the finalist announcement
- We will email you the instructions for submitting the presentation slides.
- Both students are expected to attend the finals. But either, or both of the students may present.
-
Students must use the submitted PDF slides for their presentation.
- If really necessary (e.g. to show a video), you can use your own laptop. For Macs, please bring a VGA dongle.
- Mingle, chat, make friends, have fun.
- Note: ALL finalists will receive a ‘QInF 2010 Finalist’ prize :-)
- The five winning teams will be announced (online) by May 15
NorCal Finals on Tue May 4
Applicants from Stanford and Berkeley will attend a half day session at Qualcomm's R&D Center in Silicon Valley.
- Venue: Qualcomm Research Silicon Valley (QRSV)
- Address: 3165 Kifer Road, Santa Clara, CA 95051
- Date: Tue, May 4, 2010
- Time: 3 pm to 7:30 pm
-
Tentative program:
- 3:00-4:00pm: Mixer
- 4:00-5:30pm: First presentation session
- 5:30-6:30pm: Dinner
- 6:30-7:30pm: Second presentation session
UPDATEWe had a great set of finalist presentations. All teams had a great presentation, were very well prepared, finished on time, and were very energetic. The following is snapshot of this happy group!
SoCal Finals on Fri May 7
Applicants from UCLA, USC, and UCSD will attend a half day session at Qualcomm's R&D Center in San Diego.
- Venue: Qualcomm Research Center (QRC) San Diego
- Address: 5665 Morehouse Drive, San Diego, CA 92121
- Date: Fri, May 7, 2010
- Time: 10 am to 3 pm
-
Tentative program:
- 10:00-10:30am: Mixer
- 10:30-12:00pm: First presentation session
- 12:00-01:00pm: Lunch
- 01:00-03:00pm: Second presentation session
UPDATEWe had a great set of finalist presentations. All teams had a great presentation, were very well prepared, finished on time, and were very energetic. The following is snapshot of this happy group!
QInF 2010 Finalists
The following is the list of 21 finalist teams, in order of submission time.
Transportation Information
Qualcomm will provide buses for transportation.
-
Berkeley (May 4th)
- Pickup: In front of Soda Hall 4th floor entrance at 2 pm
- QC contact: Mohit Bansal
- Dropoff: 8:30 pm
-
Stanford (May 4th)
- Pickup: In front of the fountain in the Packard courtyard at 2:30 pm
- QC contact: Alok Aggarwal
- Dropoff: 8:00 pm
-
UCLA (May 7th)
- Pickup: Van park in the alley between Engineering IV building and Engineering I building
- Pickup time: Van is there at 6:30am leaves at 7:00am at the latest
- QC contact: Salvador Rivas (626-808-5929)
- Dropoff: leaving QRC about 3:30pm, arriving in LA between 6-7pm depending on traffic.
-
USC (May 7th)
- Pickup: On McClintock Ave. in front of the Ronald Tutor Hall (RTH) Building
- Pickup time: Van is there at 6:30am leaves at 7:00am at the latest
- QC contact: Lilian Rivera (213-740-9677)
- Dropoff: leaving QRC about 3:30pm, arriving in LA between 6-7pm depending on traffic.
-
UCSD (May 7th)
- We are not arranging transportation since the campus is very close to QC
If driving to QC on your own, please be here before the mixer starts.
Thanks again for making QInF 2010 a great success. The effectiveness of the program is entirely due to the enthusiastic participation of the students, their innovative ideas, and the faculty members for guiding and recommending them. We hosted the two QInF 2010 Finals (NorCal and SoCal) last week, where all the finalists presented their ideas to a panel of judges, and interacted with Qualcomm researchers. Every team did a superb job of presenting their ideas, and impressed us with their poise and preparation.
We at Qualcomm CRD enjoyed running the QInF program, and are eager to make the final announcement – that of the winners ! We knew during the finals itself that the task of selecting 5 winners (out of 80 applicants, and then 21 finalists) would be hard. In fact, we decided to award the $100,000 QInF 2010 fellowships to SIX winning teams. Congratulations to the winners, and a huge round of thanks to all of the other finalists and applicants.
QInF 2010 Winners-
Title:
Millimeter-wave Dual-Band Passive RFID using Antentronics
- Students: Maryam Tabesh, Amin Arbabian
- School: UCB
- Recommender(s): Ali Niknejad
- Qualcomm Mentor(s): Ali Tassoudji, Bo Sun
-
Title:
Parallel Object Recognition on Mobile Platforms
- Students: Bor-Yiing Su, Bryan Catanzaro
- School: UCB
- Recommender(s): Kurt Keutzer
- Qualcomm Mentor(s): Payam Pakzad
-
Title:
Modeling The Other Brain
- Students: Viviane Ghaderi, Sushmita Allam
- School: USC
- Recommender(s): Alice Parker, Theodore W. Berger
- Qualcomm Mentors: Victor Chan
-
Title:
Object-Level Mapping, Localization, and Change Detection on Mobile Platforms
- Students: Taehee Lee, Teresa Ko
- School: UCLA
- Recommenders: Stefano Soatto, Deborah Estrin
- Qualcomm Mentors: Ashwin Swaminathan
-
Title:
Location-, Demographic-, Preference- and Content-Based Music Search and Recommendation
- Students: Luke Barrington, Brian McFee
- School: UCSD
- Recommenders: Gert Lanckriet, Lawrence Saul
- Qualcomm Mentors: Vidya Narayanan, Anthony Sarah
-
Title:
Understanding Inefciencies in General Purpose Processors
- Students: John Brunhaver, Andrew Danowitz
- School: Stanford
- Recommenders: Mark Horowitz
- Qualcomm Mentors: Mehrdad Reshadi, Pablo Montesinos-Ortego
Pictures
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Next steps:
- We will assign a mentor to each of the winning teams, who will guide and collaborate on their research progress through the next year
- There will be one or more research updates from the winning teams to Qualcomm
- We will also contact several of the other participating teams for followups and collaboration discussions with ongoing research projects
- And of course, stay tuned for QInF 2011 :-)
Application Rules
Can you have students from different advisers on a team?
Absolutely
Can students without advisers participate?
Sure, but they are encouraged to find a like-minded faculty to recommend the innovation
How should we submit the proposal?
There will be a website to upload your application material (i.e. Proposal, Recommendation letter, CVs). Please check the website before the submission deadline and find the link
Can you have one student from a different school?
No, since the money is awarded as a fellowship through the school
Can you have one student from another participating school?
Yes, as long as the other student is from an eligible schools, i.e. Stanford, UCB, UCLA, UCSD, USC
Can you have one/two team members from outside EE/CS departments?
We understand that several students collaborate across disciplines. As such, one of the members may be from outside EE/CS. In other words, at least one member must be from EE/CS.
Any restrictions on citizenship?
None
Can a team of one apply?
Nope - we are encouraging teamwork as one of the key aspects
Can Visiting Scholars or Post Docs be applicants?
Unfortunately, visiting scholars are not eligible to apply for the fellowship this time. You are welcome to discuss your proposal and be guided by your visiting scholar associate or your faculty adviser, but both applicants must be EE/CS PhD students
Can someone form two separate two-person teams and enter the Qualcomm Fellowship competition with two project proposals and be affiliated with two teams?
You are very welcome to submit two applications, with two different teams
Can the same pair of students submit two applications?
Sure, just go through the application process twice and submit two completely different sets of application
Is there a preference on the seniority of the students?
Since this is a research focus fellowship, we are limiting this to PhD students. This means that the student must be enrolled in the PhD program in Fall 2010 to win the Fellowship (i.e. accepted into PhD program starting Fall 2010 is fine).
Proposal
What does "innovation proposal" mean?
| - | Introduction, which describes the problem and current state of the art (i.e. limitations or lack of current solutiuons) |
| - | Proposal, which describes the innovation idea, and what you propose to do |
| - | One year horizon, which explains the target goals for one year and preferably also includes the long-term milestones |
| - | Team effort, which describes each team member's strength and proposed contribution to the innovation for achieving the milestones. Also describe why this team is better suited for this proposal than any one else. |
What size of proposal do you expect?
approx 3 pages
Who owns the intellectual property from the applications?
Students / University
Who owns the intellectual property developed during the course of the Fellowship?
Students / University
Does the proposal have to be the same as the research plan for your Ph.D. under your supervisor for the next year? i.e. can the proposal be for a project that is nor your main area of research?
The proposal can indeed be different from your thesis
If the winning proposal is for a non-primary research project, how many hours of work per week do you expect the winners to spend on their projects?
There is no strict requirement on how much time you are expected to spend. We expect the winning projects to be interesting and exciting enough that the winners will want to spend time on the project. In addition to the Fellowship, Qualcomm will assist by providing mentor, and the recommending faculty would be another likely resource for help. Internships in the summer are also possible
Is there any preference on incremental vs. long-term ideas?
No, both types of proposals are welcome
Should the proposed ideas be commercializable?
Not at all. It could be pure research
Are proposal outside of the listed areas acceptable?
Can the recommending faculty be from another university?
What should be the scope of the recommendation letter from the faculty?
Awards
What is the judging process?
The final winners are selected via a two step process: (i) reviewers from Qualcomm R&D selects a list of finalists who should prepare a presentation about their proposal; (ii) after finalists presentation, the judging panel selects the winners.
How many Fellowships will be awarded?
5 winning teams, each having 2 students. So a total fellowship award of 5 teams X 2 students X $50,000 = $500,000
There are 5 awards and 5 schools. Does this imply one award per school?
NO. This is an open contest between all five schools. With five different awards, it is likely that one school will win more than one award
What happens if the applicant already has a fellowship?
The winners get the title, and their department will appropriately reward the student and his/her research project via other possible means
Do funds expire after 1 year?
No, the department can roll it over to next year. Your department is completely flexible on how to use the money
Are proposals for projects that are aligned with Qualcomm’s business interests favored, or will proposals be selected purely on
We are hoping that the fellowship applications will introduce us to new areas of research. As such, we explicitly encourage proposals in new areas that are not yet aligned with Qualcomm’s business interests
Afterwards
Other than the Fellowship award, Qualcomm will also provide the following:
- - A mentor for each winning team
- - Opportunities for regularly collaborate with the researchers in the Qualcomm Research Centers and possibly use their labs
- - Guest offices, and reimbursement for travel to Qualcomm facilities
- - Expedited process for internship applications
New for 2010
- Number of schools is increased from two to five
- The finalists’ presentation will be considered during judging and winner selection
Special instructions for QInF 2009 Applicants
Can QInF 2009 applicants apply again?
Of course! In fact, we encourage former applicants to submit new, or update their original proposal and resubmit it again using the provided proposal guidelines.
Can QInF 2010 applicants get feedback on their application?
Yes! If you like to get feedback on your original proposal, please contact us (innovation.fellowship@qualcomm.com) and we will set up a face-to-face or phone conversation to give you feedback on your proposal and how you can improve it for QInF 2010.
Do We need to re-generate the proposal, recommendation letter ect?
No need of new letter if the proposal is basically the same. We advice you to re-frame the proposal according to the guidelines, thus enhancing the readability.
Top 5 reasons to re-apply :-)
- Since QInF 2010 is so soon after 2009, we are effectively increasing the rewards for a similar applicant pool size
- QInF 2009 was very competitive (caused by the excellent pool of applicants) - if you don't reapply, you are only improving the winning chances of your peers.
- We will provide personal feedback if you so desire, and help you improve the applications.
- You can re-use much of the application material from last time
- The judging committee will be significantly different from last time.