Lydia T. Liu of University of California, Berkeley, has won the 2019 Microsoft Research Ada Lovelace Fellowship. The fellowship is aimed at supporting diverse talent getting doctorates in computing-related fields, and Liu is one of the first five students to receive it.

The fellowship offers three years of funding for second-year PhD students from groups underrepresented in computing.

Liu’s research aims to establish theoretical foundations for machine learning algorithms to achieve reliable and robust performance. “I believe these future collaborations will be invaluable,” she said.

2019 @Microsoft Research Ada Lovelace Fellowship: Winners announced – https://t.co/veCN7oIl6o pic.twitter.com/wGSsEZfd5b

— TFiR (@tfir_io) January 23, 2019

Hiwot Tadese Kassa, University of Michigan; Os Keyes, University of Washington; Divine Maloney, Clemson University; and Izzy Starr, University at Buffalo are among the other winners.

Microsoft Research has also announced the 2019 winners of the PhD Fellowship. Established in 2008, the two-year fellowship is awarded to 10 third-year doctoral students at North American universities pursuing research aligned to the directions pursued by Microsoft Research.

Constantin Dory, whose research at Stanford University is in photonics using diamond and silicon carbide as new materials in quantum computing, said: “A close bond with Microsoft will allow me to learn how my research may be relevant to immediate industrial applications and what I should be focusing on during my PhD to make the most meaningful impact.”

Highlights of the 2019 Microsoft Research PhD Fellowship:

It provides tuition and fees for two consecutive academic years (2019-20 and 2020-21).

And an annual stipend of $42,000 to help with living expenses and conference travel.

A quick look at the 2019 Microsoft Research PhD Fellowship winners:
Constantin Dory, Stanford University
Danielle Gonzalez, Rochester Institute of Technology
Daehyeok Kim, Carnegie Mellon University
Jayashree Mohan, The University of Texas at Austin
Ramakanth Pasunuru, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Daniel Rakita, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Raghuvansh R. Saxena, Princeton University
Joana M. F. da Trindade, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Zuxuan Wu, University of Maryland
Katherine Ye, Carnegie Mellon University