The CRNCH Fellowship program invites PhD students in their second year to submit an application for funding of research related to novel computing paradigms and hierarchies. For decades, stored-program architectures (predominantly Von Neumann model of computing) have been the foundation of computing systems, but as the demands for performance (speed, real-time responsiveness, code size, and energy consumption), reliability, trust, security, and privacy grow, going beyond such traditional models is imperative. This necessitates rethinking the complete hardware and software stack. CRNCH aims to promote this goal through the involvement of outstanding Georgia Tech PhD students engaged in CRNCH-related research.
Please send any questions to the fellowship administrators at fellowships@nullcrnch.gatech.edu
Submission
- To submit an application, click here.
- Advisors, please submit your letter of support here.
- Fall 2023 Deadlines: Extended to July 31st, 2023 @ 11:59 pm, ET (Final Deadline)
- Final award decisions will be made by August 8th, 2023
Detailed Proposal Instructions
This fellowship will support new, innovative research proposals. In other words, your proposal should not consist solely of extensions to previously completed research or be a summary of previously submitted work with minor extensions.
Successful proposals will include:
- A statement of new work to be done during the award semester with a focus on innovative approaches to a problem
- A detailed research plan with timelines and milestones for experiments, and a section detailing empirical measurements and metrics to assess whether the proposed techniques are successful.
- Proposals with multiple faculty advisors will be given priority consideration, although this is not a strict requirement.
- Incomplete proposals will not be considered.
Provisions and Eligibility
- The award will be for one-semester duration. The award amount will support half of a standard 50% GRA appointment (the other half must be supported by the advisor). We anticipate awarding up to four fellowships that must be used in the FY24 fiscal year (Fall 2023 or Spring 2024).
- Students must be at least in their second year and have an official PhD advisor. It is recommended that the student has performed research for two or more years with their PhD advisor and be in good standing, as of Fall 2023.
- The student should not undertake a TA assignment in the same semester as they receive the CRNCH fellowship.
- The student should not have received a CRNCH Fellowship previously.
- Areas of interest include but are not limited to: Hardware and software aspects of future computing directions, including heterogeneous (e.g., GPU, FPGA, or TPU), analog computing, approximate and probabilistic computing, neuromorphic computing, computing based on novel device physics, and materials (e.g., spin-based electronics, nonlinear dynamics, and chaos); energy-efficient computing including reversible and adiabatic computing; quantum computing; optical computing; biological and biochemical computing; non-von Neumann computer architectures, such as in-memory processing, memory-based computing, cellular automata, or cellular neural networks. Hardware explorations could include novel architectures while software explorations can be focused on software stacks, simulations, and tooling needed to implement future systems.
Application Details
A complete application must include the following:
- A two (min) to four (max) page research project description with an abstract. A standard-two column format like the IEEE two-column format is recommended. There is no page limit for the bibliography.
- A brief CV (max 2 pages)
- Unofficial transcript from Georgia Tech
- Upload all documents in PDF format using the fellowship application form here.
- Advisor letter of support that advocates for the novelty of research, its impact, and student’s strengths (maximum one page). To submit a letter of support please submit it here.
Post-Completion Requirements
- Present a research poster at the CRNCH Summit (late January/early February) to obtain feedback from internal and external attendees.
- Submit a final report in the form of a draft of a publication quality paper by May 5, 2024.
- 6-8 pages in two-column format, including references for feedback on the research and connections with related work at Georgia Tech.
- Give a talk in the Comp Arch seminar series in the next semester after your award to help prepare for submission to a top-tier publication venue.
Review Process
- All the submissions will be reviewed based on novelty and potential impact by a CRNCH review committee chaired by Rich Vuduc, Hyesoon Kim, Tushar Krishna, and Jeff Young.
- Review feedback will be given to all applicants (awardees as well as non-awardees). Feedback to non-awardees will include tips for improving the submission for a future application cycle.