The Apple Scholars in AI/ML PhD fellowship program recognizes the contributions of emerging leaders in computer science and engineering at the graduate and postgraduate level. The PhD fellowship in AI/ML was created as part of the Apple Scholars program to support the work of outstanding PhD students from around the world, who are pursuing cutting edge research in machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Duke may nominate up to (3) students. Universities may nominate a maximum of (1) student to any of the research areas (see below).
The password to access the guidelines will be available by request. Duke students interested in this opportunity can contact fundopps@duke.edu.
Deadlines:
- Duke Internal Deadline: July 8, 2025
- Deadline for Nominations: Sep. 9, 2025
Nominations are limited to (1) nominee per research area, out of the total of (3) nominees. This year's research areas are:
- Privacy Preserving Machine Learning
- Human Centered AI
- AI for Ethics and Fairness
- AI for Accessibility
- AI for Health and Wellness
- ML Theory
- ML Algorithms and Architectures
- Interactive ML and Agents
- Speech and Natural Language
- Computer Vision
- Information Retrieval and Knowledge
- Data-Centric AI
Nominees must meet all of the following criteria to be considered:
• Nominee must be enrolled full time at the nominating university at the start of Fall 2026, and expect to be enrolled through the end of the 2027/2028 academic year;
• Nominee should be entering their last two to three (2-3) years of study as of Fall 2025; and
• Nominee must not hold another industry-sponsored full fellowship while they are an Apple Scholar in AI/ML (Fall 2026 to Summer 2028).
The monetary award will be disbursed annually to the eligible nominating university in the form of an unrestricted gift with the intention to fully support the research of the university’s successful nominee(s). • Gift amount covering full tuition and fees (enrollment fees, health insurance, and books) for two (2) academic years • Up to $40,000 USD gift each year to help with actual living expenses and related expenses • $5,000 USD gift each year to support research-related travel and associated expenses • Mentorship with an Apple researcher
Owing to the sponsor's restriction on the number of applications that may be submitted from Duke, anyone wishing to pursue nomination should submit the following materials as one PDF:
• CV and publication list
• Research statement covering past work and proposed direction for next 2 years (4 page maximum, including citations, in a legible font size) clearly stating the hypothesis and expected contributions to the chosen research area.
Please submit internal materials through My Research Proposal. (Code: ILN) https://www.grantinterface.com/sl/GCENqR
Instructions for creating an account (if needed) and submitting your materials: https://ctsi.duke.edu/about-myresearchproposal