MINDS is calling for the submission of proposals for the Spring & Summer Data Science Fellowships to recognize and support outstanding graduate students working broadly in data science, and particularly in the foundations of deep learning and graph learning.

MINDS 2021 Doctoral Dissertation Award

MINDS established the Doctoral Dissertation Award program to recognize and encourage superior research on the theoretical foundations of data science by doctoral candidates at the Johns Hopkins University. The award is presented each year around the end of Fall and is accompanied by a prize of $1,000.

Eligibility: All Johns Hopkins Ph.D. graduates are eligible, and only the student’s advisor may nominate a dissertation.  For each year’s award cycle, a nominated dissertation must have been successfully defended within the previous academic year: nominations for the 2021 award will be open for students having defended their thesis between September 1st 2020 and August 31st 2021.

Selection Criteria: Applications will be reviewed by an awards committee for technical depth and significance of the research contribution, as well as potential impact on theory and practice.

Deadline: Applications will be received until December 10th, 2021, 11:59 pm EST.

Submission Instructions: Nominations are to be submitted by the student’s advisor only, and they should be emailed to minds.awards@jhu.edu. The nomination package should include the following material:

  • Name, email address and academic position of the nominator (the student’s thesis advisor).
  • Name, email address and affiliation (school and department) of the candidate (person being nominated).
  • Dissertation abstract.
  • Nomination letter by the advisor addressing the significance of the dissertation and impact of the nominee’s research.
  • Endorsement letter: the nominator must provide one supporting letter from an expert in the field who can provide additional insights and evidence of the dissertation’s impact and merit.  (The nominator/advisor may not write this letter of support.)




MINDS 2022 Spring & Summer Fellowship Call

MINDS is calling for the submission of proposals for the 2022 Spring & Summer Data Science Fellowships to recognize and support outstanding graduate students working broadly in data science, and particularly in the foundations of deep learning and graph learning.

This award will support the selected fellows in one of three modalities: (i) support for the Spring semester of 2022, (ii) support for a research internship at MINDS over Summer 2022, or (iii) support for Spring + Summer 2022. The summer internship will have a higher stipend than the semester fellowship. Candidates are to specify which of the award modalities they wish to apply to, and their research proposal should be reflective of the duration of the type of award (see below).

Eligibility: Ph.D. students currently advised by MINDS faculty are eligible at all stages of their graduate studies. Applications will be reviewed by an awards committee for technical depth, potential impact of the research plan, and quality of presentation. Priority will be given to proposals addressing topics in the foundations of deep and graph learning, and to those including two or more MINDS faculty as advisers. Current MINDS fellows who wish to renovate their fellowships (based on their progress) are also encouraged to apply.

Submission details: Students are to submit a one page proposal for modality (i) and (ii), or a two-page proposal for modality (iii), as well as the candidate’s CV. Current MINDS Fellows should include a small section on their accomplished research progress in the last year. All material (compiled in a single pdf file) should be sent to the email address: minds.awards@jhu.edu by Dec 3th, 11:59 pm.