Computational Molecular Sciences – Visiting PhD Scholar Program 2024
Modern Machine Learning methods are becoming mainstay in computational molecular sciences and are shown to provide efficient solutions to long standing problems. However, there is a severe lack of modes by which computational scientists are trained in this trans-disciplinary area. This visiting program aims to provide necessary guidance/mentorship to young researchers in collaboration with their research advisor(s) to take up a problem, solve using modern ML methods, and prepare a final report/publish/patent. This will be a 1-Year program from April 2024 to May 2025.
Who is eligible?
- Currently enrolled in PhD program (below 3rd year preferred) in the area of computational molecular science (chemistry, materials, biophysics, bioinformatics, etc.).
- Willing to work on a problem using machine learning as a primary or one of the tools collaboratively (student and PhD advisor from home institute; a student and a faculty mentor from IIITH).
- Basic programming skills (any language) – students will be trained to work with Python and PyTorch.
What is covered?
For students:
- Two round trips from home institute to IIIT Hyderabad by flight/train/bus (up to Rs. 10,000 per trip – shortest path/most economical ticket at the time of booking).
- IIITH Hostel fees/Food expenses for three months (up to Rs. 10,000 per month).
- Since we do not pay salary or fellowship and only support travel and local sustenance, students may continue to receive their PhD fellowships in their home institute.
- Access to Talks/lectures/workshops on ML and ML4Science.
- Access to Tutorials and Practical sessions on different modern ML algorithms.
- Expert Mentorship on the ML and ML4Science components.
- Compute infrastructure (GPU computing) for the ML work.
For the PhD advisors:
- One round trip from home institute to IIIT Hyderabad by flight/train/bus (shortest path/most economical ticket at the time of booking) at any time during the program.
- Local hospitality for up to 5 days.
How to apply?
Please follow the link to fill the form and submit the following
(1) A short Statement of Purpose (max. half page)
(2) CV of the student and the PhD advisor
(3) Two-page proposal prepared by the student and the PhD advisor (A4 page single spaced, 12 font, Times New Roman) – write up on the research problem (title, motivation, problem statement, why is ML appropriate for solving this?, dataset, outcomes, references)
(4) In addition to the above, recommendation/consent letter from the PhD advisor should be directly sent to ML4science@iiit.ac.in (Few lines each related to capability of the student, consent to be part of the collaboration (IIITH mentor/student to be part of any resulting publication/patent/technical report/..), availability of the student for IIITH visit, availability of the advisor for regular meetings).
Selection criteria:
- PhD coursework
- Programming aptitude
- Research Proposal and defense
- Any other criteria as decided by the committee
Timelines:
28th Feb 2024: Application Deadline
Feb 2024: Shortlisting of proposals, proposal defense and selection of finalists
Mar 2024: Announcement of results
Mar-Apr 2024: Online meetings (coding exercises, problem solving, etc.)
Apr 2024: Choose a faculty mentor from IIITH (you may give options from the list of faculty members at IIITH who wants to be part of this – to be provided later)
May-Jun 2024: Two month stay at IIIT Hyderabad during the beginning of the program (lectures/tutorials on ML, weekly meetings on the research problem, weekly reports to PhD advisor and IIITH mentor).
July-Nov 2024: Continue to work on the problem from home Institute (at least 10 hours per week) and bi-weekly meeting with PhD advisor and IIITH mentor.
May 2025: One month stay at IIIT Hyderabad to consolidate the results, analysis and preparation of final report (and possibly submit a manuscript).
May 2025: Submission of final report and final presentation to a larger audience
* All selected students will visit IIITH at the same time so that tutorials/lectures/training session could be conducted together.
