NortonLifeLock Research Group Graduate Fellowship 2020 for Outstanding PhD Students

We are now accepting applications for the 2020 NortonLifeLock Research Group (now NRG formerly known as Symantec Research Labs) Graduate Fellowship Program. Final award decisions will be made in January 2020.

Application Deadline: 4th December, 2019 (5:00 pm Pacific Time Zone).

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: All

To be taken at (country): USA

About the Award: Fellowships will be bestowed on one or more exceptional Ph.D. students who meet the eligibility criteria listed below. Our program aims to fund innovative research that not only has real-world value but aligns well with key areas within our business. Topics of interest include:

• Privacy and Identity: Applied and novel techniques for privacy and identity-protection objectives such as authentication, authorization, verifiable claims, trust, anonymity, ubiquitous and usable encryption, and privacy-preserving analytics.
• Security: Achieve security objectives in consumer-related contexts including operating systems, web, mobile devices, internet of things, and cloud-based services through such mechanisms as trusted hardware, secure programming languages, security by design, threat and malware characterization, and auditing and deception techniques.
• Machine Learning and Data Mining: Machine-learning systems robustness, interpretability, security, privacy, and accountability. Also, scalable ML methods, such as graph and time-series analyses, anomaly detection, natural language processing, online learning, and distributed model training, in support of the privacy/identity and security areas mentioned above.
• Human Factors: Applications of psychology, sociology, anthropology, behavioral economics, human-computer interaction, linguistics, and other human sciences to security and privacy. These include usable security, use of technology for social good, effective privacy, security, and identity theft notifications, and both human-assisted AI and AI-assisted humans.

Type: Fellowship

Eligibility: 

• Applying students must be enrolled in a Ph.D. program.
• Preference will be given to students who desire to work in an industrial research lab and to those working on innovative research projects in areas related to NortonLifeLock’s businesses and interests.
• Recipients will also be selected based on their overall potential for research excellence and their academic progress to date as evidenced by publications. Typically, award recipients have produced multiple relevant publications at top-tier conferences. https://www.nortonlifelock.com/about/corporate-profile/our-strategy/research-labs/news/2019-fellowship-winners

Number of Awardees: Not specified

Value of Fellowship:

• The NRG Graduate Fellowship provides up to $20,000 USD that may be used to cover one year of the student’s tuition fees and/or reimburse expenses incurred by the student during research collaboration with NRG. Common examples of expenses are, but not limited to, conference registration fees, travel expenses, hardware, etc. If the recipient’s intended use of the endowment is to cover tuition, this portion of the award will be made available through the university.
• Most importantly, each award includes a salaried internship with NortonLifeLock Research Group. In most cases, interns will collaborate with NortonLifeLock Research Group at one of our locations (Culver City, CA, USA; Mountain View, CA, USA; Dublin, Ireland; Sophia-Antipolis, France). Please note that all fellowship applicants shall be considered for internships and full-time employment with NortonLifeLock and may be encouraged to apply for open positions.

How to Apply: Application materials must include the following:

• Resume or C.V. Please include current enrollment year of grad school as well as anticipated graduation date. For each publication mentioned in your CV include the url if available. (Please use the following naming convention for the file: cv_<lastname>_<firstname>*)
• Personal statement of research interests may not exceed 750 words, excluding references. Applicants are strongly encouraged to articulate the value and novelty of their past and current research, and to describe their future research plans and interests. (Use the following naming convention for the file: research_stmt_<lastname>_<firstname>*)
• Two letters of recommendation from professors or industry researchers who can evaluate the applicant’s scientific aptitude and potential for research. In order to preserve confidentiality, authors may send letters of recommendation directly to NortonLifeLock. (Use the following naming convention for the file: recommendation_letter_<applicant_lastname>_<applicant_firstname>_<recommender_lastname>*)

* When emailing the application please use “NortonLifeLock Fellowship Application” in the subject line. All fellowship application materials will be handled in accordance with NortonLifeLock’s privacy policy for job applicants, which can be found at: https://www.nortonlifelock.com/content/nortonlifelock/benefits/home/privacy

Visit Fellowship Webpage for details