No, you don't have to be a US citizen to apply. We have sponsored J-1 visas (for those outside the US) in the past as well as had F-1 students already in the US use CPT to be part of the fellowship. We can't provide funds for visa applications but can definitely send a supporting letter [...]
Yes, the fellowship is paid. The stipends are fixed but vary by the cost of living of the fellowship location. For Pittsburgh, the stipend is $10000 for the summer and should be more than enough to cover travel, housing, and other expenses over the summer. While budgeting for the program, please keep in mind that [...]
We are working on organizing housing for 2020. Please check back later.
No. We can make some exceptions for up to 2 days off during the summer (for critical cases), but spending a week away from the work is not fair to the other fellows on your team. If you need to be away for a week during the summer, this may not be the summer for [...]
Partially. We spend the months leading up the Fellowship designing projects with project partners. Once the Fellows are selected, we will send you a list of these projects and ask you to give us your preferences. We'll then use these preferences and the needs of the projects to create project teams. You can see past [...]
A lot of the project teams end up writing papers but that's not the goal of the summer fellowship. We encourage people to do good work with real impact and the paper is often a by-product of that good work
An ideal mentor has a strong technical background, typically PhD (in Data Science, Computer Science, Statistics, Social Science, or Public Policy) and 5+ years of industry experience. We want mentors to have real-world problem solving experience as well as experience in leading teams and working with students and industry partners. In the past years, we've had [...]
Our priority is to have full-time mentors. These are paid, full-time positions. If you want to help in a part-time capacity, please contact us separately to see how we can get you involved.
Mentors are a critical component of the Fellowship. Each mentor leads (typically two) teams of Fellows and serves as a project lead and technical adviser. Mentors also help us design the activities over the summer and are an integral part of the organizing team.