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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:
The main judging criteria is an innovation proposal that must include:
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):
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:
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
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?
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.
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.
Applicants from Stanford and Berkeley will attend a half day session at Qualcomm's R&D Center in Silicon Valley.
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!
Applicants from UCLA, USC, and UCSD will attend a half day session at Qualcomm's R&D Center in San Diego.
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!
The following is the list of 21 finalist teams, in order of submission time.
Qualcomm will provide buses for transportation.
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 WinnersPictures
Absolutely
Sure, but they are encouraged to find a like-minded faculty to recommend the innovation
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
No, since the money is awarded as a fellowship through the school
Yes, as long as the other student is from an eligible schools, i.e. Stanford, UCB, UCLA, UCSD, USC
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.
None
Nope - we are encouraging teamwork as one of the key aspects
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
You are very welcome to submit two applications, with two different teams
Sure, just go through the application process twice and submit two completely different sets of application
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).
| - | 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. |
approx 3 pages
Students / University
Students / University
The proposal can indeed be different from your thesis
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
No, both types of proposals are welcome
Not at all. It could be pure research
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.
5 winning teams, each having 2 students. So a total fellowship award of 5 teams X 2 students X $50,000 = $500,000
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
The winners get the title, and their department will appropriately reward the student and his/her research project via other possible means
No, the department can roll it over to next year. Your department is completely flexible on how to use the money
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
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.
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.
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.
